Kingdom Anime
by darkruler64
Summary: My telling of the Kingdom Hearts story. 14 Year old Sora becomes the wielder of the mystical Keyblade and travels to worlds from various anime!
1. Destiny Island

**Note from the Author: **This story is a collaberation with ShaD.23, who will be taking care of several chapters.

* * *

"_I've been having these really weird thoughts lately…_

_Like, is any of this for real or not?"_

So familiar was this feeling of falling….falling through darkness.

For the past few nights, Sora had been having this same dream, and it became more and more vivid each time. At last he stopped falling and landed safely on his feet, he stood on some sort of platform. It was stained glass and there were silhouettes of women on it. Sora neither knew nor cared what this meant, he just wanted out. A voice both strange and comfortingly familiar whispered to Sora.

_So much to do…so little time…but have no fear, take your time. The day when you will open the door to light is very far and very near._

Suddenly a glistening sword appeared before him. He instinctively reached out and grabbed it. Then the voice spoke again.

_A sword of great power and terrible destruction. Is this the tool you chose?_

Sora knew this sword was important, he knew he needed it. Suddenly, he felt a presence behind him, a dark presence. He turned around and saw a small black creature with beady yellow eyes and a pair of antennae on its head. He swung the sword and slew it with ease, and the voice spoke again.

_You have obtained the power of the warrior. The power to defend yourself and others. Is this the form you choose?_

Sora knew his answer was "yes."

A stairway appeared before him and he proceeded to climb it. At the top, there was a doorway. He opened it to reveal a brilliant white light and then he was surrounded by darkness once more. He felt afraid but his mind was surprisingly clear.

He opened his eyes and found himself standing on another enormous platform of stained glass. This one had two heart-shaped symbols on it, one was a blue heart with a tiny gold crown on top and the other was a black heart outlined in red, with a red X across it. He didn't recognize these symbols but he knew they were of great importance

_The closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes_

Sora turned around to see his shadow growing and growing. It was coming to life! It expanded into something enormous and shapeless. Next thing Sora knew, he was…sinking…yes sinking into his own shadow! He opened his mouth but could not scream, he tried to flail his arms but they were heavy as lead.

_But don't be afraid. And don't forget...you are the one who will open the door._

"Sora, you Lazy, good-for-nothing! I knew I'd find you snoozing here." Kairi snapped.

Sora's eyes flew open and bolted upright. It had all happened so fast! For a few moments he was speechless. Wanting to change the subject, he stood up and spoke.

"Say, Kairi. What was your hometown like? You know, were you were born?" He asked.

"I told you once before I don't remember." She answered. "Don't you miss it at all?" Sora asked. He was trying to take his mind off his dream.

"Well, I'm happy here" Kairi answered honestly. "But I might like to see it again someday."

"I'd like to see it too." Sora added "So what are we waiting for?" Kairi asked excitedly.

"Aren't you two forgetting about me?" came a mature voice. Sora and Kairi turned around to see their friend, Riku. "So I guess I'm the only one working on the raft."

"Don't be silly, I can put the finishing touches on the raft." Kairi said. "Why don't you go catch us some fish? Three should do." Riku nodded and set out for the ocean.

"Sora, you get us some fresh water and produce." she ordered. Sora saluted and Ran for the trees. He picked up his wooden sword, gave it a few whacks and two fresh coconuts fell and hit him on the head. He staggered over to the raft and dropped them into a crate.

He then made his way to the "Secret Place" where he knew some edible mushrooms were growing.

It only took him about a minute to get there, when he made his way inside the cave he stopped to admire some carvings he and Kairi made when they were little, sweet memories those were. Sora suddenly felt as though he was being watched. He turned around slowly and saw a cloaked figure standing in the corner.

"I have come to see the doorway of this world." it said. Its voice was a low rumble.

"W-who...?" Sora began.

"This world has been connected." the figure declared. "Tied to the darkness…soon to be completely eclipsed."

"Y-you're from another world." Sora gasped.

"There is so very much to learn." The figure stated. "You understand so little."

"Well, you'll see! I'm gonna learn what's out there!" Sora said defiantly.

"A meaningless effort." The figure declared softly. "One who knows nothing can understand nothing."

Sora turned to look at the mysterious door for just a few seconds and when he looked back the cloaked figure was gone. Had Sora imagined it? Feeling nervous and confused, he grabbed the mushroom and headed out of the cave. He passed Riku who was taking on Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie. From the looks of things, Riku was winning too. Selphie wrapped her jump rope around Riku's wrist, he countered by hurling her into Wakka, now it was just him and Tidus. Riku used a one-handed style. He fought with incredible deftness of blade. Tidus' style was acrobatic and consisted of many jumps, flips, spins, and kicks. Though less disciplined than Riku's style, it was also less predictable. Sora already knew who would win, of course.

Sora joined Kairi who had completed the raft. Riku joined them a few minuets later.

"So, Kairi's home is out there somewhere, right?" Sora asked, staring into the horizon. "Could be." Riku answered with a shrug. We'll never know by staying here."

"But how far could a raft take us?" Sora asked.

"Who knows?" Riku said. "If we have to, we'll think of something else."

"So, suppose we do make it to the outside world. What will we do there?" Kairi asked. "Well, I haven't really thought about it." Riku said. "It's just... I've always been thinking about how bad I wanna escape these islands."

Kairi and Sora regarded their friend with concern.

"We've nothing more to learn here." He went on. "That's why we need to make it out there…learn as much as much as we possibly can."

After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Sora rose and said. "Well, we better get some sleep."

"You two go on ahead." Riku said, brooding. "I have a lot to think about."

* * *

Krillin strode into the throne room to greet Goku. By all accounts, he was the rightful king of this system and he was undoubtedly a great leader but he never considered himself a "king." As Krillin looked around, he found only their pet dragon Ikarus holding a letter in his beak.

_Everyone,_

_Please forgive me for leaving so suddenly, but a storm is coming and there is no time to lose. The Stars have been going out one by one and I have to check it out. The Key to our survival is out there waiting, you must find this key at all costs. without it we are all doomed! Go to Traverse Town and ask for Leon, he'll know what to do._

"GOHAAAN!" Krillin cried

He ran outside to find Gohan, Goku's son snoozing in the courtyard.

"Wake Up!" Krillin cried.

He lifted his finger and discharged a bolt of energy which zapped Gohan, who awoke and let out a high-pitched yelp.

"Listen, we've got a situation," Krillin said, Grabbing Gohan's shoulders. "but don't tell anyone!"

"What situation?" A feminine, yet stern voice demanded?

They turned around to face Gohan's mother, Chichi. Krillin Showed Chichi the letter who read it with Gohan. After about a minute Gohan broke the silence.

"What could this mean?" He asked.

Chichi sighed and said "It means we just have to trust your father." after all these years she had learned to trust her husband as he trusted his instincts.

"We'll find dad AND this _Key_!" Gohan announced valiantly.

Wasting no time, Gohan and Krillin boarded the gummiship.

Gohan waved goodbye to his mother and his little brother, Goten. Krillin gave the thumbs-up to the engineers, Oolong and Puar and they blasted into space.

Back on Destiny Island, Sora was in his room, just getting ready to dose off when he looked out the window and saw lightning. _"A storm!" _He thought to himself. He leapt out the window and ran for the beach, all around him, he saw small, stubby black creatures with beady yellow eyes and antennae on their heads. He recognized them from his dream, the _"Shadows"_ as he silently dubbed them.

Then he saw Riku standing on the mass of land they used for a lookout. Sora ran across the peir to Riku. A mysterious mass of black gas-like substance was forming under him.

"Where's kairi?" He asked, panicking. "I thought she was with with you!"

"The doorway has been opened, Sora." He declared, "This is our only chance to get to the outside world. We may never see our friends or family again, but we can't let fear stop us!"

"But…Kairi…!"

"Kairi's coming too!" Riku assured him.

Sora stared in disbelief at his best friend. Riku was starting to scare him. At that moment a mass of black gas-like substance formed under Riku and he reached out to Sora.

"Take my hand!" he commanded. Don't be afraid of the **Darkness**!"

Sora hesitantly reached for Riku's hand but leapt back as the darkness devoured Riku.

Sora fell to his knees barely comprehending what just happened. Unsure why, he ran to the secret spot and found what he was looking for, Kairi was standing there with a lifeless expression on her face.

"Kairi!" Sora cried.

Kairi slowly reached out to him. "Soraaa..." she moaned softly.

Without warning, the door behind her flew open, darkness poured out and a gust of wind blew Kairi toward Sora, he opened his arms to grab her but she vanished before he could. The wind blew him out of the cave and back onto the beach. More shadows appeared and he ran back to the lookout.

The small mass of land was lifted off the ground and began rising into the air. For a few moments Sora couldn't move, he couldn't think, it was so much to take in! At that moment, a long glistening silver key appeared before him. It had a square hand-guard, like a sword and it had a keychain attached to the hilt, an orange ball with four red stars on it. Sora grabbed the key, he could feel energy flowing through him the moment he gripped its hilt. He got back on his feet and noticed two Shadows approaching him, they must have clung to the land mass. They leapt at Sora and he swung the key, reducing them to puffs of black smoke upon contact.

Step by step, the dream he had been having was becoming reality. Sora looked into the night sky and saw that an enormous black hole had formed. It was frightening yet wondrous, in the center was a swirling vortex of neon-red gas. The land below him shattered and he ascended closer and closer to the black hole. A black figure emerged, grabbed Sora, and pulled him up, into the hole. The entity was as tall as his house and it's arms were thicker than tree trunks. It's head was covered in tentacle-like appendages. Sora stared into it's glowing yellow eyes. It needed a name…Sora thought for a moment…. _"Darkside." _It was the most frightening thing Sora had ever laid eyes on, but wasn't going to stop him.

This thing was strong but it was not a person. It was less than human, it was a beast. Sora did give a second thought to attacking it. With his free arm, he brought the key down and plunged it into the creature's arm, and with a great yank, severed it. The creature made no sound and sank out of sight. Sora was tumbling deeper and deeper into the vortex. There was no gravity so direction was irrelevant. Destiny Island was no where in sight now.

Once more, Sora was falling…falling through darkness.


	2. Traverse Town

Krillin strode impatiently through traverse town wondering where to look next. Gohan followed close behind, admiring the town. No one seemed to know where this "Leon" was at the moment.

"There's a Gizmo shop in the second district" he suggested.

Krillin sighed. "Fine."

As the walked toward the second district Gohan pointed to the sky.

"Look!" He hissed "A star is fading!"

Krillin looked up and saw that some celestial body was indeed fading from sight.

"Let's Hurry." He said and they were off.

They didn't even notice the unconscious boy in the alley.

Sora opened his eyes slowly.

"What a dream." He muttered.

His eyes bulged and he jumped to his feet.

"This isn't a dream!" He gasped.

He ran out of the alley and gazed at the town before him.

"This is awesome…I'm in another world!" He exclaimed to himself.

No familiar faces though, no sign of Riku or Kairi. Sora turned around to notice the Accessory shop behind him. He entered the shop and turned his attention to the man at the counter. The man was middle-aged with spiky blond hair. The man looked up from the newspaper he was reading.

"How can I help…Aw just a kid!"

"I'm not a kid!" Sora countered. "An' the name's Sora!"

"Okay, simmer down." The man said lazily. "Nice to meet ya, Sora."

"So, Gramps have I…"

"Gramps? I ain't **that **old!" The man growled. "The name's Cid."

"Okay, Cid." Sora said "So have I really made it to another world?"

Sora took a minute to explain what happened to him.

"Well, that's quite a story, but this sure ain't yer island." Cid said. "Traverse Town is where lots of folks come when their worlds are lost. Take a look around, you might even find those friends of your's."

Sora took Cid's advice and went behind the shop. He went through some double doors to the second district, there was a plaza with an old fountain and a Gizmo shop. As Sora was making his way toward it he saw something that made his insides freeze. A man was being chased by one of those Shadows, He lost his balance and fell on his side, he rolled over on his back and put his arms up in a feeble attempt to protect his chest. The Shadow's once solid body seemed to turn spectral, it dove into the man's body and emerged, holding the man's heart on its claws. The man vanished into thin air, then his heart turned black and before Sora's very eyes, it morphed into a second Shadow identical to the first. They both leapt toward and he slew them with a single-spin attack. To Sora's amazement, slaying these creatures did not feel _bad _or _wrong_, like killing a living being might have felt. Putting it behind him, Sora entered the Gizmo shop. It was full of gears and contraptions but they did not seem to be running.

Having had no success, Sora returned to the Accessory shop and told Cid about the Shadows. It was no surprise to Cid.

"Damn Heartless." He grumbled.

"Heartless…that's what their called."

"The Heartless are monsters that multiply by stealin' folks' hearts." Cid said plainly. "No one really knows why."

Sora left the shop and set his sights on the doors to the second district. He only took a few steps away from the shop when he heard someone speak.

"They'll come at you from out of nowhere…" Said a youthful, yet stern voice.

Sora turned to see an older boy, maybe nineteen or twenty. He had long brown hair and a deep scar across his face. He wore black jeans and a leather jacket.

"...and they'll keep on coming, as long as you hold on to the Keyblade. But why, why would it choose a kid like you?" He wondered aloud.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sora demanded.

"Never mind. Now, let's see that Keyblade." He said menacingly.

"Wha…there's no way you're getting this!" Sora swore.

The young man lifted his weapon over his shoulder, It was a long broad sword with what looked like a gun barrel in it.

"Have it your way." He said.

He leapt foreword and Sora leapt back so the man brought his blade down on the ground. The two of them charged toward each other, exchanged several strikes and parries, then leapt back. The older boy pulled the trigger on his gun-sword, a short stream of fire came out of the barrel and coiled around the blade. It formed into a ball at the tip of the blade and when he released the trigger it shot toward Sora, who knocked it away with his own blade. It was all the boy needed. Before Sora could swing his Keyblade to block, the boy dashed over to him and struck him in the back of the head with the strange weapon. Sora fell to his knees and almost fell face-first onto the ground, but the Man caught the unconscious Sora and picked him up.

_Elsewhere…_

Krillin and Gohan were walking down the back alley, still looking for answers.

"There's no one here." Gohan stated. "Kind of spooky, huh?"

"I'm not scared." Krillin proclaimed.

Krillin felt a tap on his shoulder and let out a yelp. He grabbed a hold of Gohan and two of them whirled around to see a young lady about nineteen. She had very long brown hair and green eyes.

"Welcome, did the king send you guys?" She inquired in a soft, feminine voice.

Gohan nodded. "I'm Gohan and this is Krillin." He said.

"My name is Aerith." She said warmly. "Please follow me, we have much to discuss."

Sora slowly opened his eyes and saw a familiar looking face, though his vision was a little blurry in this dimly lit room.

"K…Kairi?" He whispered.

"Kairi? Who's that?" Asked an unfamiliar voice.

Sora slowly sat up and his vision cleared. Before him stood a tall girl with a bob of black hair, wearing a green tube top, kaki shorts, and white leggings.

"I'm the great ninja Yuffie!" She announced. Sora noticed the boy with long brown hair who introduced himself simply as "Leon."

"The Heartless were chasing you cuz you wield the Keyblade but what they really want is your heart cuz you wield the Keyblade!" Yuffie explained. She spoke in an energetic voice. Sora noticed the Keyblade at the foot of the bed.

"The Key…blade….?" Sora asked, still a little confused.

"Yeah, we had to get it away from you to shake off the Heartless. That's how they were keeping track of you." Yuffie went on.

"It was the only way to conceal your heart from them, but it won't work for long." The one called Leon said. "Still, hard to believe that you of all people are the one. I guess beggars can't be choosers."

"Why don't you start making sense?" Sora suggested, making no effort to hide his irritation. "What's happened?"

Next door, Aerith was explaining the same thing to Krillin and Gohan.

"You know there are many worlds besides your castle and this town, right?" She asked, just wanting to make sure.

"Yeah." Krillin answered, trying not to sound impatient.

"But aren't they supposed to be secret?" Gohan inquired.

"They've been secret because they've never been connected before. At least, as far as I know." She said honestly. "But then the Heartless came and changed everything."

"Heartless?" Gohan questioned.

"Those without hearts." Leon explained to Sora.

"The darkness in people's hearts is what attracts them…" Yuffie explained.

"…and there is darkness in **every** heart." Leon added.

"There was once a scientist named Ansem." Yuffie said.

"Ansem had been studying the heart and the Heartless." Aerith continued. "He supposedly wrote all his findings and his research in a very detailed report. It was never actually found, though."

"Then maybe the king went looking for it." Krillin suggested.

"Then we need to find him!" Gohan concluded.

"But first we need that…_key_." Krillin reminded him.

"That's right, the Keyblade." Aerith added.

"The Heartless have great fear of the Keyblade." Leon said "That's why they'll keep coming after you, no matter what."

"Well, I didn't ask for this." Sora said truthfully.

"The Keyblade chooses it's wielder." Yuffie said.

"…and it chose you." Leon added.

"But how did all this happen?" Sora wondered aloud. "I remember being in my room…that's right…what happened to my home?"

"You know what…I really don't know." Leon said with whole-hearted honesty.

After a few moments of silence, Leon spoke again.

"I expect the Heartless will be back soon. No matter where you go, they'll find you. You ready to fight for your life?" He asked in the most serious voice Sora had ever heard.

Sora nearly scoffed. "Like I have a choice?" He asked, Leon's pessimism was starting to rub off on him.

"Let's go join Aerith, she should be next door with the other visitors." Leon suggested.

"Look out!" Yuffie warned as a Soldier Heartless appeared.

"Go, get Aerith!" Leon ordered and Yuffie ran out the door.

Leon knocked the Soldier out the window and turned to Sora. "Follow me." He said and then he jumped out the window, followed by Sora. They ran down the back alley together, hacking and and slashing Soldiers that appeared. They entered a door leading to the plaza where Aerith and Yuffie were waiting.

"Where are the others?" Leon asked.

"They went to the third district." Aerith answered.

"They said they could handle it." Yuffie added.

Sora sprinted left toward another alley.

"Wow! Look at em' go!" Yuffie exclaimed enthusiastically.

Sora made a right, entered a doorway and climbed a short stair way. He passed a vacant house and jumped down into the third district. At that moment, two guys landed on him. One was a short, bald mage and the other was a young man about sixteen. Krillin and Gohan noticed Sora under them, still clutching the Keyblade.

"The key!" They both exclaimed.

They got to their feet and helped Sora up but before they could introduce themselves six Soldiers appeared and surrounded them.

"We've got your back." Gohan said boldly to Sora.

Two Soldiers twirled gracefully through the air toward Gohan, who countered by flinging his shield, it spun through the air, severing the Soldiers' heads and returned to Gohan.

Sora waved the Keyblade in an arc and took out the two Soldiers that leapt at him.

Krillin discharged a bolt of lightning called from his staff which fried the two Soldiers that were sliding toward him. Without warning an enormous bell-shaped torso topped with a helmet appeared above them. They leapt out of the way just before it hit the ground, followed by two boots and two gauntlets. The body parts assembled to form Guard Armor. It wasted no time and slammed it's gauntlets into the ground. Gohan and krillin retreated, however Sora dodged the right gauntlet and hacked it apart with two slashes of the Keyblade. The left gauntlet rocketed toward Krillin but Gohan dove in front of it and managed to block it with his shield. Krillin pointed his staff at fired a searing ball of flame. It hit the gauntlet, shattering it. Guard Armor began stomping toward Sora when a whistle could be heard. It was Cid, he had whistled to get Guard Armor's attention and he was holding some sort of machine gun. As Guard Armor stomped toward Cid, he opened fire. The gun shot beams of energy (rather than bullets) that left deep burns in the Armor. Sora took advantage of this by scrambling up Guard Armor's torso and knocking the helmet off. The helmet seemed to fade from existence before it even hit the ground. The torso, the boots, and the broken gauntlets faded away as well.

_At that very moment…_

In a dingy chapel, a group of villains were gathered around a conference table and watching the whole thing by means of a magical glyph. There was a man with long silver hair and a crescent symbol on his forehead, a chalky white man with a long nose and dressed in a tattered cape and a wide-brimmed hat, and an aged vampire in a black cape.

"How extraordinary for such a small boy." The man with long silver hair commented. His voice was low and masculine.

"Perhaps he can be turned into a Heartless." The aged vampire suggested. He spoke in a deep voice with a thick accent.

"But he and that key of his might be useful." The man in the wide-brimmed hat hissed.

"I agree." The counsel's shadowed leader said. "For now...we will watch him closely, then we will decide what action to take.

* * *

Everyone had gathered in the third district.

"So you guys were looking for me!" Sora concluded.

"Yep, our king sent us to find the wielder of the Keyblade." Krillin said simply.

"Why don't you come with us?" Gohan proposed. "We can travel to other worlds with our vessel."

"I wonder if I can find some friends of mine." Sora said pensively.

"Sure!" Krillin said.

"Are you sure?" Gohan whispered.

"Who knows? But we need him in order to find the king." Krillin whispered back.

"Sora, Go with them. Especially if you want to find your friends." Leon suggested.

"All right then." Sora decided. "Count me in!"

Aerith stepped forward and handed Sora a necklace.

"This is a protect chain." She said. "It's magic will protect you from damage, for a while anyway."

Sora thanked her and ran outside the gates to join Krillin and Gohan. They were standing next to their Gummiship.

"You fly to other worlds in a space ship made of candy?"

He climbed in the ship with them. It blasted out of the atmosphere and into deep blue space.


	3. Spirit Bathhouse

Sora was so busy gazing at the passing stars he didn't even notice the space battle taking place. Krillin was firing lazers at a swarm of black and purple Gummiships with Heartless emblems on them and these Heartless ships were firing back. After most of the swarm was destroyed, only two remained. They both fled and Krillin did not bother to pursue them since they had reached their destination. It was a world covered in lush green plains and a river that was worthy of being called a sea. Krillin took the ship down and landed on a hill above some sort of train station.

"You really think we'll find your king here?" Sora asked.

"Not sure," Krillin answered truthfully. "but I feel like we need to be here for some reason. Don't you?"

The trio made their way down the hill and before them existed an enormous bathouse. When they entered there seemed to be a trial of some sort taking place. The judge was a large, ancient looking woman, the defendant was a girl with brown hair in a ponytail, she was clad in pink. She seemed to be trying her best not to show any nervousness but Sora could see it quite clearly. A frog hopped toward her and began to speak.

"Court is now in session!" the frog announced. "The defendant, Chihiro has been charged with attempted theft of Lady Ubaba's heart. How do you plead?"

The girl called "Chihiro" seemed to be at a loss for words. Sora knew right away she couldn't possibly be capable of something like that, it had to be the Heartless.

"This girl is the culprit! There's no doubt about it!" The old Lady who Sora presumed to be Ubaba said with a sneer. "Since I'm in a good mood though, I think the usual punishment will do." She cleared her throat and raised a gavel. "The defendant will simply be transformed into a pig and join her parents."

Sora felt his anger rise. Without considering the consequences he rushed forward, ignoring Krillin's protest.

"Stop!" he cried. "I know who the real culprit is!"

Everyone stared at Sora with doubt. The frog chuckled. "Yeah, right." he said sarcastically. "Guards, remove these intruders."

Ubaba held up her hand and they halted. She then turned to Sora

"You were saying?" she asked with a sickly sweet smile.

"It was the Heartless!" Sora blurted out. The Heartless are monsters that..."

"Yes, I know what the Heartless are." Ubaba cut him off and turned to a boy standing next to her. He was dressed in white and had green hair.

"What do you think, Lord Haku?"

The boy thought for a moment and responded. "I believe him."

Ubaba turned back to Sora "Tell ya what." She said. "Find a Heartless, capture it and bring it to me and I'll let Chihiro go." A nasty grin crossed her face and she added. "But if you fail, I'll turn her into a pig. Then I'll turn you and your companions into ugly little lumps of coal. You have thirty minutes"

"Okay." Sora said with a smile that could have meant anything.

"Lord, Haku, you will accompany them. Make sure they don't try anything funny." Ubaba ordered.

Haku joined Sora, Gohan, and a very panicked Krillin and lead them to an elevator.

"I'm too handsome to be turned into a pig!" Krillin whined.

"So, um...do you have a plan? Cause I don't." Sora admitted to Haku.

"If the Heartless tried to take Lady Ubaba's heart and failed, then they must still be around." Haku suggested. "We should start with her office."

They exited the elevator when it got to the top and Haku lead them past several large vases into a rather large and luxurious office. Sure enough they saw a Shadow crawling on the floor. Sora bent down and picked it up by the scruff of it's neck. At that moment Ubaba burst in looking both panicked and furious.

"Check it out!" Sora said proudly holding up the Shadow.

"Never mind that!" Ubaba snarled as she snatched the Shadow and hurled it out a window.

"Because of you, there are Heartless popping up all over the place! Now you get out there and get rid of them all or I...I'll turn you into a dung beetle!"

_"Since you ask so nicely."_ Sora wanted to say. Haku lead them out of the bathouse and onto the grounds where five Soldiers, three Air Soldiers, and a Large Body were attacking staff and guests. Sora took a defensive stance as the Heartless turned their attention to him but without warning, Haku ran in front of Sora and transformed into a mighty dragon! He had a canine-like head with a pair of antlers on top and a serpintine body. Gohan and Krillin screamed while Sora gased in awe. Haku rammed into the large body, sending it flying over the horizon. With a sweep of his tail, the rest of the Heartless were scattered like leaves. Sora ran over to Join Haku as he reverted to his humanoid form.

"That was amazing!" He exclaimed.

"I'm going to check on Chihiro." Haku said and he left without another word.

"We should get back to looking for the Keyhole." Krillin said and the trio turned to head back to the bathouse.

"Where do you think you're going?" Ubaba squawked from behind them. "You're not done here!"

"What are you talking about?" Sora asked, annoyed. "We got rid of all the Heartless."

"Then what do you call THAT?" Ubaba demanded and pointed behind them.

The Trio turned around to see a cloud of black and purple smoke. When it cleared, standing before them was a ten-foot tall red and black Heartless. It's head was made of five connected segments and it was obsessively juggling two batons

"I think I'll call you...Trickmaster!" Sora said to it.

"You give Heartless names?" Krillin asked raising an eyebrow and Sora replied, "That's half the fun!"

Sora charged toward Trickmaster and it kicked him with one of it's blade-like feet. Sora flew back and Gohan caught him.

"Stand aside." Krillin said and shot a fist-sized ball of flame from his staff at the Heartless. Trickmaster held out it's batons and the ball of flame made contact with them, setting them ablaze.

"What were you thinking?" Sora demanded.

Trickmaster lept toward them and they rolled out of it's way as it swung both batons. It made five jabs at Sora and he blocked each one with the Keyblade, staggering with each block.

Krillin waved his staff and sent a flurry of ice crystals at the batons and doused the flames.

Gohan used his strongest (very clumsy) turbo attack and collided with Trickmaster's legs. Trickmaster wobbled toward Sora and began falling forward and Sora leapt back as Trickmaster hit the ground. Sora stood on the creature's back and thrust his Keyblade into the back of it's head. Trickmaster flailed it's rubbery arms wildly before evaporating into a cloud of black smoke. A large heart appeared and rose into the sky. Sora turned and bolted for the bathouse, he found Haku waiting for him in the lobby.

"How's Chihiro doing?" He asked eagerly.

"Gone..." Haku answered.

"Wha...?" Sora gasped.

"Taken by the Heartless...into the darkness."

Haku tried hard not to show how worried he was but Sora could tell. After all the years he had spent with Riku, Sora had learned to look inside people when he couldn't read their faces. "I'll find her." he said putting his hand on Haku's shoulder. "I'll bring her back."

"Don't bring her here." Haku said. "Promise me you'll help her find her own world."

"Okay, I promise." Sora said and for the first time Haku allowed himself a slight smile, very much like Riku's. It was rare that Sora ever saw Riku smile but when he did, it was a sight to see. _"Riku..." _He thought. The last he'd seen of his oldest and closest friend, he was engulfed by darkness. He could be turned into a Heartless. _"No, Not Riku!"_ Sora would never except that.

Krillin and Gohan walked in and joined them. "No more detours, Sora." he said. "Let's find that Keyhole and get outta here."

"Keyhole?" said a voice. They turned to see an old man walking toward them on six legs...or were they arms. "I know where there's a keyhole." he said.

"Could you take us there?" Sora asked eagerly and the old man lead them into a boiler room beneath the bathouse.

He pointed to an old fireplace and inside was a keyhole much like the one in the secret cave he and Riku had explored together. At that moment the Keyblade seemed to have a mind of it's own. It pulled Sora's arm closer to the keyhole. A thin, white beam of light shot from the tip of the Keyblade into the blackness of the keyhole. A flash of white light and the keyhole vanished, the world had been sealed.

"We are outta here." Krillin said. His tone made it clear that they were finished here. Sora thanked the old man and bade farwell to Haku.

* * *

As Sora watched the Bathouse world disappear from view he felt a warmth growing in his heart, a warmth like none he'd ever felt. By sealing that keyhole, he'd insured that world's saftey and he asked for nothing in return. That was the cause of this warmth and Sora longed for more.


	4. The Spirit World

The Gummiship had been traveling through hyperspace for quite some time now.

Sora didn't usually pay attention to time but he guessed that at least an hour had past.

He was just about to dose off when something caught his eye, a shooting star!

When Sora was little he had heard sailors talking about shooting stars. If you saw one you were supposed to make a wish. This was the first time Sora ever got to see one, he had a chance about a year ago but he slept through it. He closed his eyes and his heart raced as he tried to decide what to wish for. Before he could decide though, he was interrupted by a sudden rocking.

"What's going on?" he asked, whirling around.

"Some kind of….warp hole!" Gohan said "Hang on to something, there's no telling where we'll end up!"

The ship sped through the mysterious hole. They were surrounded by light, color, and before they knew it…liquid! As the ship surfaced Sora could see that they were in a river.

The land around them was yellow and rocky.

"I think I see faces in the water!" Sora exclaimed.

"It's your imagination." Krillin said narrow-mindedly.

Gohan activated the boosters and took the ship out of the water. They ascended a few hundred feet, moments later Gohan pointed out what looked like an enormous palace or temple.

"That building looks significant. Maybe we can get some answers there." he suggested.

"We have no business being here in the first place." Krillin said and so Gohan took them up and away from the land and into the pink sky where they saw another big mass of land.

Upon that mass was an enormous arena.

"We need to go there!" Sora burst aloud.

"What are you talking about?" Krillin questioned.

"I just have a feeling we need to be there." Sora answered, shrugging.

"We're going to have to talk to someone sooner or later." Gohan added. "We may as well pick someplace out of the way."

"Alright, but only to find out how to get out here." Krillin said.

It was the largest arena Sora had ever seen. His whole island could probably have fit inside. The thousands of stands were empty save for two beings, a big blue ogre with a yellow horn on top of his head and a lady with blue hair dressed in a pink kimono.

"Excuse me." said a youthful voice. Sora looked around for it's source. "Down here" it said. Sora looked down to see a human looking boy in his toddler years looking up at him. He wore a blue robe and a matching blue cap with the title "Jr" on it. In his mouth was a round silver pacifier, his arms were folded behind his back as though he were in charge.

"What are you doing here?" He asked. Sora hesitated and responded with a question of his own. "What is this place?"

"This is Spirit World Arena." The little boy declared. "We're getting ready to start the Spirit World Tournament!"

"The preliminaries are about to start and no spectators are allowed." The boy went on. "Heroes only."

"You got heroes standing right in front of you!" Sora blurted out.

The boy fell to the floor, uncontrollable with laughter.

"What's so funny?" Sora demanded.

"A runt like you in MY tournament? You won't last one minute!"

"You got no room to talk!" Sora countered.

The boy got to his feet and cleared his throat. "I am Koenma, Prince of Spirit World." he declared.

"The world of Spirits is Ruled by a toddler?" Krillin questioned.

"I may look like a toddler but I have existed for seven hundred years, so don't take me lightly." Koenma said. "Anyway, you three don't look like heroes and you don't look deceased, so run along."

"Uh, wait. How exactly do we get out of this world?" Krillin asked.

"The same way you got in," Koenma replied, "Through the River Styx."

Krillin and Gohan strode out of the arena with Sora dragging his feet behind them.

"Can you believe that guy, turning us down like that?"

"Sora, we're on a mission, we don't have time for games." Krillin told him. "We got what we came for."

"There's always time for a little game." Said a harsh voice

A large man-like creature was standing right behind Sora. He wore a deep blue robe and a brown collar and cowl with decorative gold lining. He had a chest plate resembling a skull and just above it rest a small ornamental mask. His face was slimy green and his eyes were burning red.

"Koenma's a foot up **everyone's **ass, but even he can't turn down a young challenger like yourself." he said handing Sora an entry pass.

"You mean I can have this?" Sora asked, wondering if there was a catch.

"Damn right!" the creature answered. "Now you get back in there an' show em' what for!"

"Now wait just a minute." Krillin said

"C'mon, Krillin! We may never get another chance like this!"

"I say we let him enter, he could use the experience." Gohan added.

"Fine." Krillin sighed.

Sora turned to the creature, "Thanks, mister." he said with a grin.

"Name's Ha Des…" the creature declared, "…**Dark Ruler Ha Des **to you." He added and vanished in a shroud of green smoke.

Sora ran back toward the arena, Krillin sighed as he and Gohan went after Sora.

* * *

"W-where did you…" Koenma began to ask Sora.

"I can enter the games now, right?" Sora asked with anticipation.

"Well…er, I guess I have no choice." Koenma sighed "Let's see what you've got."

Sora stepped into the ring and three tall, greenish skeletons surfaced.

"Pfft… is **this** the best you can do?" Sora asked. He launched himself forward and a single sweep saw the skeletons reduced to dust. A fourth surfaced behind him, he kicked it in it's pelvic bone and it let out a high squeal, then collapsed.

"Hmm, you're better than I thought," Koenma said.

"Looks like I'm heading for the games." Sora said as though it was nothing and Koenma shook his finger.

"Not so fast." he said adjusting his pacifier. "That was just a warm-up. Now you need to prove yourself against a **real **monster." He pointed at the center of the ring and a creature appeared in a burst of green smoke. A bright red gargoyle with a horn on top of it's head. "What is **that**?" Sora asked, startled but not frightened.

"That, rookie is Ryu-Kishin. One of many strong fiends we import straight from the Underworld. If you can't even stand up to him, then you don't belong here."

"I'll show you who's a rookie!" Sora declared with utmost confidence. Ryu-Kishin approached Sora with his claws at the ready, but Sora had expected such a primal form of attack. He leapt over the fiend in a leap-frog fashion, then he ducked as the fiend swiped at his head and he stabbed it in the chest. The fiend did not bleed but rather, shattered as though made of clay.

Koenma expressed his approval "Yes, that's what I wanna see. Too bad the champ couldn't see that. Not many people have beaten Ryu-Kishin on their first try and it took Yuske almost…five minutes.

"What's he like…this Yuske?" Sora asked.

"You'll meet him soon enough." Koenma said, it didn't sound like a promise.

As Sora stepped out of the ring an older boy, maybe nineteen strode past him. He was dressed in deep blue with a deep red scarf and carrying a very large and broad sword with bandages wrapped over the blade. He had blond hair that was even spikier than Sora's and bright blue eyes. He glanced at Sora, just a glance, probably wondering what to make of him. At the other end of the ring was the man's opponent. A clown with a twisted visage and a colorful suit. At that moment another ogre rushed to the center. "Cloud Strife vs. Saggi the Dark Clown!" he announced. Sora knew right away who he wanted to win. Cloud wasted no time, he charged across the ring toward his target. The clown conjured a pulsating ball of energy in his hands and hurled it at Cloud who kept running while blocking the burning ball with his sword. Saggi was about to conjure another energy ball when Cloud zipped past him with his sword held out and Saggi fell to pieces. Had Sora blinked, he would have missed the whole thing.

"He's your next opponent." Koenma stated. "Are you ready to back down?"

"You wish." Sora countered, stepping into the ring. Truthfully he wasn't so sure he really wanted to fight Cloud. It was not Cloud's incredible speed or his big, intimidating sword. Sora was so focused on the young man's expression. It was unreadable but Sora could see beneath it. Cloud was not happy to be here, he did not want to fight, but he must have had a reason! As soon as they were announced Cloud sprung into the air and shot down at Sora like a meteor. Sora dove out of the way, sustaining some minor damage from the shockwave Cloud generated when his blade hit the floor. Sora was back on his feet in moments, barely enough time. Cloud zoomed across the ring several times in an attempt to strike Sora. Each time, Sora rolled or leapt out of the way, not daring to try and block Cloud's forceful blows. Sora had never cared much for disciplined fighting styles or practicing to perfect some technique. He let his instincts guide him. Without thinking, he jumped on the broad side of Cloud's sword. Cloud swung it around once and launched Sora into the air. In the few seconds Sora was in mid-air he knew Cloud would try to knock him out of the ring when he landed. He hurled the Keyblade down like a javelin. There was no "thinking" involved, the action just appeared in his mind in a split-second and he executed it. Cloud stepped back and the Keyblade struck the floor, before Sora could grab it when he landed, the broad end of Cloud's blade impacted with Sora's shoulder and sent him sliding toward the edge. Cloud walked over and stared down at Sora for a moment, Then lifted his sword. Cloud did not want to hurt him, Sora could now see it in his eyes. Cloud thrust the blade into the floor, inches away from Sora's head and then turned to leave.

There was a burst of green smoke and another fiend appeared. It had purple muscular skin covered in white skeletal armor. It spread it's wings and discharged two thick yellow bolts of lightning which penetrated Cloud before he could react. As Sora sprang to his feet, the fiend turned around and grasped his torso with it's mighty paws. It lifted him above it's head and squeezed, letting all the air escape his lungs. It was intent on crushing him. Sora felt his ribs starting to bend inward when the fiend dropped him. He gasped and struggled to his feet. A young man clad in green with slick black hair had engaged the fiend. It tried to swipe him with it's paws and skewer him with it's horns, but he was much more agile. He drove his knee into it's pelvis and slammed his elbow into it's lower back, he landed a few swift punches to it's stomach but it's armor was tough. It bashed it's skull into his forehead, sending him flying. Sora picked up the Keyblade and dashed forward, he landed his best combo in the fiend and it staggered back. It was all Sora's ally needed, he rocketed toward the fiend with an azure glow around his outstretched fist. When the fist made contact with the creature's face there was a bluish-white flash, the creature flew back several feet and landed with a crash. It's teeth were scattered and it's tongue lay outstretched. Sora rushed over to help Cloud.

"Hey, are you alright?" he asked.

Cloud did not reply but rose and strode toward the exit, dragging his sword behind him. Sora tried to run after him but the man in green grabbed his shoulder.

"He can wait." he said

"You're a great fighter!" Sora exclaimed, he then realized how silly he must sound stating the obvious. "Are you Yuske?"

"Yep." the man answered. "You ain't bad yourself, squirt."

"The name's Sora."

Yuske snickered and roughly brushed Sora's head. "Whatever."

"What was that creature?" Sora asked.

"Summoned Skull." came Koenma's voice "A guardian of the underworld, and a strong one…as you've found out. You did good, both of you."

* * *

Sora stood proudly before Koenma who had just given him the title of "junior hero."

"Whaddya mean, _junior hero_?" Sora demanded.

"You still have a long way to go before you're ready to be a true hero." Koenma told him. "The first real match is in one week. Survive that match and you'll be one step closer."

"Come on, Sora. We've stayed long enough." Krillin said having used up the last of his patience.

The blue-haired lady in the pink Kimono introduced herself as "Botan" and agreed to escort Sora, Krillin, and Gohan out of Spirit World. As the exited the arena Sora noticed Cloud sitting on a ledge, brooding. He walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "I'll be fine." Cloud said, acknowledging Sora's concern.

"How come…you entered?" Sora inquired, "You didn't seem to want to fight…I could tell."

Cloud exhaled silently, considering his answer.

"I'm looking for someone…Ha Des said he knew where I could find him."

Sora gazed at him and sympathized.

"I tried to exploit the power of darkness…but it backfired and I couldn't see the light." he went on.

"I understand." Sora said, "I'm searching for someone too."

"Once you find your light, don't lose sight of it." Cloud advised. "Here, this is a gift…for trying to reach out to me." he handed Sora a keychain, it resembled a tiny chocobo. Chocobo were a species of bird that inhabited Sora's world and other world's too, it seemed.

"Let's have a rematch sometime." Sora suggested.

Cloud allowed himself a smile. "I'll think about it."


	5. Nerima

Sora and company were heading for a fairly large solar system.

"We're now entering the Tokyo system." Gohan said

**"**Let's try that one next!" Sora called, pointing to the nearest world. It was covered in rain forests, cold springs, a small city and a mountain chain.

"A backwater place like that? I don't think so." Krillin said. He hardly got a good enough look at the world to judge it.

"C'mon! Riku or Kairi might be down there!" Sora said and he tried to steer the ship toward the world.

"Hey, cut it out!" Krillin demanded.

The two of them struggled over the controls and they headed for the planet, it's gravitational pull brought them in. Sora accidentally opened the hatch and they all flew out. Krillin and Gohan fell to the south, Sora fell to the north. He flailed his arms in a feeble attempt to control his trajectory. A rain forest soon came into view. It looked as good a place as any to land.

"Wow, I'm really luck- OOF!"

At that moment, he landed in an old shack in the tree tops. Sora looked around in it. It appeared to have been empty for some time. There were a few headbands, an old, heavy looking backpack, an orange umbrella, and a few other random objects, before Sora could look around anymore, a young woman, a few years older than him, busted in. She had flowing purple hair in two long locks, draping down her shoulders in two hair bands and the look of a warrior on her face.

"Heh... heh... hey there... how are you?" Sora stammered

"Who you, boy?"the girl demanded with a slight Chinese accent.

"M-me? My name is Sora..."

At that moment, the girl held a kind of weapon that looked like a paper lantern on a stick at him.

"What you doing here?" she hissed. Sora's eyes widened and he started to crab-walk back away from her.

"I'm feeling a little over-whelmed..." At that moment, he jumped up and turned to run. He was almost at a doorway when she fell infront of him, at ready. She swung one of her weapons at him, but he countered quickly with the Keyblade.

"I don't really wanna fight with-OOF!" At that moment, the girl swung at Sora's face sending him flying. A turned over quick enough to see her lunge at him. He shut his eyes tight, ready for impact but it never came. After waiting for a few moments, he slowly opened his eyes to see the girl leaping out of the shack and a young man with black hair tied in a pigtail wearing a Chinese shirt standing over him.

"You okay?" he asked Sora. Sore nodded silently, the young man reaching for Sora's hand and pull him up.

"So, who was that girl who attacked me?" Sora asked the young man. He sighed.

"That was just Shampoo. Chinese Amazons can be territorial." The young man explained. "Anyway, don't hang around here. Follow me." he said as he leapt down the treetops "By the way, my name's Ranma." he called back as Sora followed him.

* * *

"I'm home!" Ranma called. Sora followed Ranma into a house and saw Krillin and Gohan. The three ran for each other then Sora and Krillin stopped. They looked into the other's eyes, then turned their backs to one another, both of them with their arms folded smugly.

"So..." Krillin said grumpily.

"You're allright, then?" Sora asked. Krillin gave a low grunt.

"So, you two know each other?" came a voice behind them. Sora turned and saw three figures and a fat panda in a doorway. A middle aged man with long hair and a mustache stood beside the panda while two young woman, one with short, straight brown hair and one with long brown hair tied in a ribbon, stood before them.

"Oh... Hello..." Sora said with a bow. "Sorry for intruding-"

"Don't sweat it." Ranma said lying down on the deck just outside the sliding door. "So, what were you doing lost in the rain forests?" Ranma went on. "One wrong step there can have you regretting it for the rest of your life." he added, his smile fading a bit.

"We, uh... we came looking for a friend." Sora began but then Krillin cleared his throat.

"We were 'traveling," Krillin said with a sharp look at Sora "when he decided to get rowdy and got us separated."

"Shaddup." Sora said with a wave. Just then, Gohan stepped forward.

"Anything weird been going on around here?" Krillin asked Just then, Ranma opened one eye and flipped into the yard, stomping on what looked like a monkey. Sora and the the folk inside the house ran to see Ranma fighting with a pack of dark colored monkeys when one of them leapt onto the deck. Sora saw the emblem upon it's chest. It was a Heartless. The two girls gave a quick shriek then hurried inside.

"Ranma! Please protect our house!" called the man as he too ran inside.

"Hey, Old Man, a little help?" Ranma called out as he wrestled a Heartless down. He looked up and saw the panda run inside holding a sign saying 'I'm just a panda' and growled.

"Gimme a hand, pal!" Ranma called back to Sora. Sora pulled the Keyblade out of thing air again then charged for the Heartless, Krillin and Gohan close behind. Sora hacked at the one Ranma was holding down and then turned to face a small pack rushing after them. Ranma flipped and kicked one in the head and went on to fight off the others. Sora stared as Ranma fought with lightning fast moves. Soon, however, Ranma tripped and they began to swarm him. Sora charged and began to slice down one after the next. It wasn't long before they were done. Ranma wiped a trickle of sweat from his brow and shuck Sora's hand.

"You're awright, y'know that."

"Thanks," Sora said, his Keyblade vanishing. "That happen often?" Sora asked. Ranma shrugged and began to walk to the house.

"Ever since Ryoga disappeared, those weird monkeys have been popping up every now and then, but never like this." He leapt up onto the deck and opened the sliding door. "Akane's been gone all day, too. Soun's been moping about it all day."

"Then let's go look for her."Sora called.

"Are you spontaneous about everything?" Krillin nagged. Sora ignored him and turned to leave.

"Wanna come?" he asked Ranma. Ranma however shuck his head.

"I'm hungry. I'll help you look afterwards. Besides," he said opening the door, a luscious sent flowing out. "Kasumi makes an awesome curry."

Sora felt the world around him melt and he pranced in behind Ranma. Gohan and Krillin looked at each other.

"That was interesting." Gohan said as the two walked inside.

"Sora likes to think with his stomach, it seems." Krillin responded as they walked inside.

* * *

Sora (with a full belly) and the other four made their way up a small mountain range in the nearby forest.

"So who's Akane?" Sora asked. Ranma gave a sigh.

"She's my fiance', long story" Ranma groaned. Sora was a little confused but decided to leave it be.

"Well, I'm looking for a few friends of mine. You haven't seen a guy about my age with white hair, have you?"

"Sorry, no." Ranma called back as he began to scale a mountain.

"Well how 'bout..." Sora began, but his voice trailed off as he thought of Kairi. He looked out into the valley beside him and wondered what she was doing right now. Just then, something shot after him and he tripped and fell backward.

"Sora! You okay-WOAH!" Sora heard above him. He looked up and saw the same shape shoot at Ranma, sending his toppling down the cliff. Sora stood up and hurried to see if he could find Ranma but stopped at a cliff side, a waterfall pouring beside him. He looked around but didn't see anything. Just then, he heard someone straining. He looked down and saw a girl with red hair in a pigtail holding on to the edge of the cliff.

"Dammit, Ryoga, you're gonna get it." Sora heard her mutter. He knelt down and pulled her up and saw that her clothes were soaked (and that they looked exactly like Ranma's).

"Are you okay?" Sora asked.

"I'm fine, Sora." the girl said as she shuck herself as dry as she could.

"How'd you know my name?" Sora asked. The girl, however turned to look up the mountain range.

"We need to get up there."she said quietly.

"Who are you?" Sora asked quickly. The girl looked back at him and started to climb the mountain.

"Call me Ranko." she called down to him. Sora looked up at her then began to climb with her. Krillin and Gohan looked to each other again.

"Is it just me or are we becoming minor characters?" Krillin asked. Gohan shrugged and began to climb with the other two.

"We'll get bigger parts eventually" Gohan said as he worked his way up the wall. Krillin sighed and began to climb aswell, none of them aware that someone was watching them.

* * *

The four made their way to the top of the mountain range and saw a young man dressed in orange-ish brown clothing standing alone, an umbrella slung over his back and a headband visible under his shaggy hair.

"Okay, Ryoga! Cut the jokes! Why'd you attack me?" Ranko thundered. Ryoga turned to look at the four of them, a blank stare in his eyes. He charged at them, but Ranko was quick (as quick as Ranma) and flipped Ryoga down the Mountain. She jumped down after him, leaving Sora and the other two confused. They hurried down the mountain as fast as they could and found Ranma sparring with Ryoga in a clearing near the waterfall.

"Ranma, where's Ran-" Sora began, but he quickly ducked as Ranma flung Ryoga in their direction. The three looked back As Ryoga fell into the waterfall and jumped down, ready for him to climb out of the fall's pool. Instead, a small, black piglet weakly climbed out of the pool and collapsed. While Sora Krillin and Gohan were dumbstruck, Ranma walked over to the injured piglet and picked it up by the scarf it wore around it's neck. After straining for a few moments, it coughed up what looked like a small chameleon. Sora and the other looked down at it for a few moments, then shuffled back as the creature grew to an unbelievable size, a Heartless emblem on it's chest.

"Well, this just keeps getting better and better." Ranma growled through clenched teeth. He jumped up for an attack, but the giant chameleon swung it's massive tail at Sora, knocking him into the waterfall... and to Sora and the other's surprise, Ranko climbed out!

"Okay... now I'm angry." She hissed. Ranko leapt high up and shot down at the creature's face, landing a powerful kick. Krillin rolled to the side and cast a bolt of fire at the creature as Gohan rushed it with his shield. The creature grew angry and swung a powerful claw at it's attackers. Ranko rolled out of the way and jumped up, clearly ready for more. She charged and swung a mighty fist into the giant Heartless' gut. Krillin quickly swung his staff and a breeze scooped Gohan up as he slung his shield for the chameleon. The creature was not at all pleased by this and it swung once more at them. Krillin saw it's massive claw come for him but was too scared to move. Just then, Sora shoved him out of the way, taking the blow to the back, collapsing seconds later. The three saw this and turned to the Heartless. It screeched at them and charged, swinging it's claws as Krillin and Gohan dodged, Ranko lunging for it. Just then, however, the monster began to spin in a massive twister, knocking both Krillin and Gohan away and knocking Ranko into a rock face. It stood over her, ready to finish this fight, when the fiend gave a jolt. Ranko leaned to the side and saw Sora, his Keyblade in the monster's back. It faded away into nothingness seconds later, Sora's Keyblade disappearing.

"You okay, Ranko?" Sora asked, helping the girl up. She shuck her head with a slight smile.

"It's me, Ranma." she said. Sora's expression didn't change.

"I figured. So what's all this?" he asked.

"Long story short, I fell into a spring with a curse on it. Now when I touch cold water, I become a girl."

"You did well, son-in-law." came a quiet voice behind them. The four turned to see an elderly woman looking down at them.

"And you too, boy. You with the Keyblade?"

"How do YOU know about the Keyblade?" asked Sora. At this, the old woman gave a light chuckle.

"I haven't live 100 years and learned nothing, boy."

"Well, what about me?" Sora went on. She motioned at him to follow her.

"I know what you seek." she said as she disappeared into a cave. The four followed her underneath the waterfall, deeper and deeper into the cave.

_"What I seek?" _Sora thought to himself. _"Could she be talking about Kairi and Riku?" _Sora wondered silently. They came to a dome in the cave and Sora saw it. Another keyhole. He raised the Keyblade and a small beam shot into the keyhole, sealing this planet safely from the Heartless. Sora lowered the Keyblade with a sigh.

"Something troubles you, boy?" the old woman asked.

"Hey granny." Ranma called.

"I prefer Cologne." she said gruffly.

"You seen Akane?" Ranma asked.

"Yes. She has been taken into the darkness. The creatures stole her."

Ranma growled at this and slumped over. Cologne turned to Sora.

"What troubles you, boy?" she asked. Sora looked down at her.

"When you said what I seek, I thought you were talking about my friends." Sora explained. At this, Cologne gave a small sigh and smiled.

"Well, child, sometimes, seeing our friends isn't so hard." Sora turned to her, confused. "We can see our friends often. They are in our hearts. Without hearts, we wouldn't have friends."she added, still smiling. Sora turned to Krillin.

"I'm sorry about before." he said.

"Don't sweat it."Krillin said. "Remember, we're in this together." The two friends shook hands then turned to Ranma. Sora saw she was still stuck on Akane.

"You'll find her, right?" Ranma asked. "... where ever you're going?"

"Yeah." Sora said. "We'll find Akane." Ranma turned and smiled to them then turned to leave.

"I hope she doesn't give you too much trouble." she called back to them, the four chuckling lightly.

* * *

"Check out this" Krillin said as they flew through space once more. He held a Gummi up to Sora. Sora eyed it and handed it back to Krillin.

"Maybe we should go see Cid." Sora suggested as he tried to chart a course for Traverse Town, Krillin wrestling the controls with him as Gohan sighed.

* * *

"What brought the Heartless there?" the aged vampire asked in fascination.

"It was the girl. She's one of them Princesses we've been looking for." The man in the wide-brimmed hat explained. He looked over to Akane, unconscious and held tightly by a Defender Heartless, her short midnight blue hair hanging loosely over her face.

"You never know where you'll find something important these days..." came the snarl of their leader.

"That kid's fixin' to be a pain in the neck, though boss." The man in the wide-brimmed hat hissed.

" Yes...he's sealed another keyhole." The vampire added. Their leader, however, laughed.

"And that's a bad thing? The more progress he makes, the greater the trail he leaves."

* * *

_It's me again, Shady. I'm the biggest Ranma fan darkruler64 knows, so he asked me to deal with this bit for him. Is it Good?_


	6. Traverse Town's Keyhole

Sora and company finally made it back to Traverse Town and not a single Heartless ship had troubled them on the way back. They entered the first district and found Cid in the Accessory Shop tinkering with some machinery.

"What can I do for ya?" he asked setting down his tools.

"Can you tell us what kind of gummi this is?" Sora asked handing him the gummi Krillin had found.

Cid examined the gummi for just two seconds. "Yer flyin' an' ya don't know nuthin' about navigation gummies? Bunch o' pinheads, outer space ain't some playground."

"There's a lot we don't know, so what?" Sora countered

"Yeah yeah I know. No hard feelings, okay? Anyway, with a navi-gummi you'll have an easier time finding your way around. I'll install it or ya, no charge!

_"Things are finally starting to look up." _Krillin thought.

"I'll even throw in a warp-gummi for the hell of it, an' while I'm at it you can do a little favor for me."

He took out a jar with an orange and white hamster inside.

"A Fortuneteller named Baba's in town and I want you to give her this hamster for me. Down the alley to the right and enter the big door with the flame symbol..."

He was interrupted by a loud gong that came from outside.

"What was that?" Sora asked.

"Sounded like the bell above the gizmo shop." Cid concluded, "Check it out later if ya want but deliver that hamster first.

"Why? Are you too shy to give it to her yourself?" Sora teased, Cid let out an agitated snarl and bulging vein appeared on his head.

"Kidding, I'm kidding!" Sora said grinning. "By the way, do you know where Leon is?

"There's a cavern under the House Baba's stayin' in." Cid explained, "He's probably down there practicing."

* * *

The third district was completely deserted, as it ought to have been. take the alley to the right and enter the big door with the flame symbol upon it. As the trio neared the center, it seemed as though they would make it there with no trouble until five Air Soldier Heartless appeared.

"They're never gonna give us a break are they?" Sora asked rhetorically as two Air Soldiers swooped toward him.

He leapt forward to slay them with a single-sweep but they both maneuvered away from his blade. One kicked him in the back causing him to fall forward into it's partner which kicked him in the jaw. Double bolts of lightning from Krillin obliterated the Air soldiers who attacked Sora while Gohan had beaten two more into submission.

Finally, a Large Body appeared. It charged toward them with surprising speed for such a heavy creature. Sora tried to puncture it's massive, round belly but the Keyblade was to blunt and the Heartless' belly slammed into him with the force of an incomming ship. Sora flew back a few feet and slid against a wall. Krillin and Gohan weren't faring much better, the Large Body was resistant to Krillin's magic and Gohan's punches and kicks bounced right off of it. Then Sora remembered the keychain Cloud gave him. He pulled of the regular keychain and put it in his pocket, then attatched the chocobo keychain. The blade grew broad and flat, it was also darker in color and quite heavy.

Sora got to his feet, hurled himself at the Large Body, and sliced through it's body like warm butter. A large heart emerged from it, then floated up and vanished as well the Heartless' remains.

"Nice hit." Krillin said (he didn't sound sacrcastic either)

"Thanks, but I think I pulled a muscle." Sora responded, removing the chocobo keychain. The keyblade returned to it's origonal shape and Sora put the cocobo keychain back in his pocket, then he reattached the origonal ball-shaped keychain.

The trio got to the door with the flame symbol on it but Sora noticed there was no way to open it. Krillin pointed his staff and hit the door with a small fire ball. That did the trick. The door slid upward allowing them passage into the cave.

* * *

Sora lead Krillin and Gohan fearlessly through the cave for about a minute before they came to a wide, open space. A sprawling lake existed before them, not terribly deep, with a series of stepping stones leading to a small island in the middle, upon which stood a small stone house with a monstrous mouth-shaped doorway.

"Must be the place." Sora concluded and he began hopping his way childishly across the stepping stones with Krillin and Gohan striding behind him.

When they entered the house they found no one inside but the house was far from empty. It was cluttered with books, Krillin tripped over a cauldronthat was sitting on the floor. Three shelves stood against the wall. The first was empty, perhaps reserved for some of the books. The second was stacked with bottles full of mysterious liquids. The third was stacked with jars filled with skrunken heads and other body parts. In one corner of the room was a rocking chair that appeared to be made of bones. Before Sora could examin anything else there was a burst of smoke and a tiny old woman appeared, floating on a crystal ball. She looked barely human. She was clad in black with pink hair and a pointy hat.

"You've arrived earlier than I expected." she croaked and Sora stared for a second taking in her otherworldly appearance and arrival.

"Miss um...Baba, I have something for you." he finally said and handed her the jar with the hamster inside.

"Thank you, sonny." Baba said as she took the jar, "I used to have a whole colony, but I lost them all in my travels."

She opened the jar and allowed the little hamster to scurry into her open palm. She then reached out and a small flat book flew from atop one of the stacks, onto the round table in the center. Baba flipped through a few pages until she got to one with a field of sunflowers drawn on it. It was so highly detailed that Sora would never have guessed it was a drawing. Baba set the hamster on the page and it vanished before Sora's eyes and in an instant, it reappeared in the field within the page. Sora watched in awe as the hamster scurried through the field in which it now existed.

"If you happen to find any of his friends on your travels, you'll bring them back to me, won't you?" she asked Sora.

"I'd be happy to." he said with whole-hearted honesty, Krillin rolled his eyes at this.

"Such a fine boy." Baba said. "Now then,"she went on in a more business-like tone. "Goku has asked me to train you in the art of magic."

"You've met my dad?" Gohan asked whirling around, "Where is he now?"

"That is on a need-to-know basis." Ubaba answered.

Gohan looked outraged but Krillin put a hand on his shoulder. "Gohan, you know how your dad gets." Gohan sighed and nodded, unable to argue with this fact.

"So you're gonna teach me how to use magic, when do we start?" Sora asked excitedly.

"Tomorrow at noon." Baba confirmed.

"Okay, um...could you take be down to the cavern? I wanna talk to Leon."

Baba nodded and the section of the floor Sora stood on lowered into an underground passage. He followed a corridor with lit torches along the wall until he got to a wide, shallow body of water. Sora looked in the back of the cavern and saw aluminescent mural upon the wall. It had a sun image painted on it which added to it's mesmeric effect. _"There's something about this place..." _Sora thought and as though his mind were being read, a familiar voice seemed to echo him.

"There's something about this place..."

Sora looked down and gasped to see Kairi gazing up at him.

"Remember our secret spot?"

for a few seconds, Sora was at a loss for words when another familiar voice called him. He whirled around to see Leon holding his Gunblade in one hand and a lantern in the other. He looked back to see that Kairi was nowhere in sight. Had he imagined it? Dismissing what he saw for the moment, he told Leon about his adventure at the bathouse world and the keyhole that he had sealed. He was about to tell him about spirit world when he heard his name called.

"Sora, we're going to the safe house!" Krillin called and Sora sprang to his feet.

"I'll tell you more later." he said to Leon and rushed to join Krillin.

"Wait, Sora!" Leon called and tossed some sort of gem to Sora.

"What's this?" Sora asked in fascination.

"Don't know." Leon responded, "I found it in the water. There's something in it...something that's been giving me strength."

As Sora held the gem, he sensed something inside it, something alive...innocent. He thanked Leon and ascended to house with krillin. He showed the gem to Baba and she identified it as a "summon gem."

"This poor creature's world must have been taken by darkness," she explained, "but it had such a strong heart that instead of disappearing with its world, it turned into this gem. In times of great need, you may be able to call upon it for strength. "

"Will it stay like that forever?" Sora asked, worriedly.

"It should return to its own world, once its world is restored..._if _it is restored."

* * *

Sora lead Krillin and Gohan down the alley. As soon as they set foot in the center though, three Soldiers appeared around them. Sora was about to take offensive action when something swooped down and beheaded them, it was Riku! The sword he carried had a black and red blade shaped like a bat's wing and a gleaming blue-green gem at the base. (or was it an eye?)

"It took forever to find you." he said and Sora rushed over to hug his friend. He even grabbed Riku's face to make sure he was real, then Riku told him to cut it out with a chuckle and shoved him back.

"We did it, Sora." he said with subtle triumph in his voice. "We can go wherever we want now and no one can stop us!"

The change in Riku's attitude was still quite unsettling to Sora. "W-where's Kairi?" He asked, to change the subject.

"Isn't she with you?" Riku asked and Sora hung his head. "Well don't worry, she's out there somewhere. She may be looking for us now, but we'll be together again soon. Just leave everything to..."

A cat-sized Shadow that was crawling along the wall leapt toward Riku but Sora reached out with the keyblade and stabbed it between the eyes.

"Leave it to **who?**"

"W-where did you...?" Riku began to ask.

"I've been busy too!" Sora said proudly. "Me an' my new pals here have been on some adventures!"

"It's true." Gohan added "Sora's the chosen wielder of the Keyblade."

Sora introduced Krillin and Gohan but Riku was more interested in the Keyblade.

"So this thing is called a Keyblade?"

"Yes," Sora said, snatching it back, "and it's a big responsibility."

Riku rolled his eyes at this and Sora changed his tone

"So you're coming with us right?"

"He's not comming." Krillin interjected.

"C'mon, he's my friend, too." Sora hissed to Krillin.

"I don't care." Krillin said, in a tone that left no room for further argument.

Sora turned to speak to Riku but saw that he was nowhere in sight.

"Way to go." he said sarcastically to Krillin. _"But now I know he's okay." _he thought.

* * *

Everyone had gathered in the safe house. There was enough room for three chairs, which Sora, Krillin, and Gohan were seated in. Cid, Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith seemed comfortable standing. The room was dimly lit and the wallpaper was peeling but it was warm and the coffe Aerith made for them helped. Cid had finished making the modifications to their ship. When it came to gadjets and devices, there was nothing that man could not do. Now he was having a serious discussion with Leon.

"I think Garlic Junior's here." he whispered to Leon, "Folks have been saying they've seen him lurking around."

"Who's that?" Sora asked.

Cid, Leon, Aerith, and Yuffie all turned to him.

"He's the bastard who took over our world." Cid said, "One day he came with a big swarm of Heartless and well...we were lucky to get outta there alive."

"That was nine years ago." Leon added.

Suddenly there was another loud gong.

"The bell!" Sora exclaimed.

"Come on, let's check it out." Gohan suggested and they turned to Krillin.

"You guys go ahead." He said.

* * *

As Sora reached the roof of the gismo shop, he noticed the bell tower which was boarded up.

"I wonder how someone was able to ring it." Gohan wondered aloud.

"Who cares?" Sora retorted and he hacked the boards away. He grabbed a hold of the rope and rang the bell.

"Look!" Gohan said pointing to the fountain in the courtyard below. The flower mural on the wall had rotated to show another side. Sora ran to the edge for a closer look, he saw that this side had trees on it and the once empty fountain was now full of bright red flames. He ran back to ring the bell again and the flames were doused, the mural rotated to reveal another side with butterflies on it. Sora dropped down to the ledge below and again to the ground, then made his way toward the fountain. A shimmering film of light had covered the mural and as Sora neared it, an opening in the shape of a keyhole appeared. Overcome with excitement at what he was about to accomplish, Sora rushed toward the Keyhole but slammed face-first into something solid. He fell on his back and looked up to see what was blocking his path.

It was Guard Armor, with a few small visible changes. The boots and gauntlets that were it's feet and hands had switched positions, the sole and heel of each boot opened and closed like a crab's claw, it's bell-shaped torso was turned upside down as well. Before Sora could even finish taking in it's appearance, it snatched him up in it's claw and clamped so tightly on his waist, he feared he could snap in two. He could not move his arms enough to use the Keyblade but despite the pain, he could move his right arm just enough to reach into his pocket and grab the summon gem and press it against his chest.

"give...me...strength..." he whispered and the gem gleamed so radiantly and a yellow animal emerged from it. It was about the size of a cat, it had a rodent-like face, pointy ears, a broad, flat tail, and round red patches on it's cheeks. It leapt onto Guard Armor's head and let out a shriek. Countless bolts of electricity stretched out from every inch of the creature's skin and penetrated Guard Armor, who dropped Sora and fell to peices like a broken toy. The creature crawled over to Sora and nudged his cheek with it's little black nose. He opened his eyes and gazed into the creature's face. It had a friendly smile, it's eyes were glistening black orbs.

"_pikachu" _it squeaked gleefully, then it's once solid body transformed into a beam of light and retreated back into the gem.

Before Sora could get to his feet, Guard Armor's torso and head lifted themselves off the ground, abandoning the boots and gauntlets. As Sora crawled backwards a few feet, the open end of the torso pointed itself at him like a cannon and a pulsing white ball of energy manifested inside. The orb continued to power up, and Sora held his Keyblade horizontally in front of him, ready to block the attak. At that moment, Yuffie of all people jumped between Sora and the cannon. Before Sora could protest however, she hurled an object into the cannon which exploded on contact. The energy ball inside dissipated and the torso and head fell to the ground with a loud clank, then all of guard armor melted into a purple puddle and evaporated. Cid, Leon, and Gohan came to join them.

"My homemade grenades **always** work best against the big ones." Cid declared with smug pride.

"I could have taken it." Sora grumbled.

"Whatever." Yuffie said, snickering, then Sora remembered what was really important, the keyhole. He pointed the keyblade and a beam of white light shot into the keyhole, in a few seconds it vanished and the familiar warm feeling he got the first time he sealed a keyhole had returned.

* * *

Riku was standing on a rooftop watching Sora. Next to him stood a cloaked dwarf. He had pale blue-green skin pointy ears and a big bald head.

"He is very lucky to have all those new friends." he said, sounding amused. Riku only glared down at his..._friend_.

"I can't trust him anymore." he said as coldly as he could.

"Never mind him then." Garlic Junior said in a more serious tone. "I can help you find this girl of yours, but first you have to do something for me."

* * *

That evening...

Sora sat with Leon in the resturaunt in the first district. He had been telling Leon about his adventure in Spirit World. He took out the chocobo keychain that Cloud had given him.

"Cloud and I were classmates." Leon had told him.

"Were you friends?" Sora asked.

"Sort of, we were rivals...I gave this keychain to him the night before the Heartless came and took over, didn't think I'd ever see it or **him **again. "


	7. The First Match

It was almost pitch-dark in the third district. The only source of light was the ball on which Baba floated behind Sora. His first task was simple, to light a candle with fire magic. _"See the flame in your mind." _she had told him. It had taken him three tries to get it right. On the first try, he felt something within his Keyblade waiting to be released, but could not get it out. On the second try, he managed a weak spark which quickly faded., Ubaba told him he was trying to hard, using magic required imagination, not strength. On the third try he released the energy within the Keyblade, but he released a little too much at once, the candle itself burst into flame and a shower of sparks caught Sora's clothes on fire. He cried to Baba for help, but she was determined to see him succeed. She told him to douse the flames with blizzard magic, to command a _deep freeze._ Sora did so and a spray of ice crystals saw the flames extinguished. Baba also made him heal his own burns with cure magic, which seemed to be the easiest spell for him. About an hour past and Sora was becoming quite skilled. She had conjured and hurled balls of fire at him which he doused by spraying ice crystals, then she began hurling chunks of ice which he shattered with fire balls. Finally, the lesson was concluded with Sora's first attempt at thunder magic. There was a powerless circuit breaker upon the wall, which she had him power with a jolt of lightning. When he succeeded she had decided that he had learned enough for today.

"Looks like your doing well." a familiar voice commented.

Sora looked down to see none other than Koenma.

"You're going to need those skills for today."

"Let's get going!" Sora said, he could have contained his excitement but he wanted to show Koenma he was ready. Koenma opened a bright portal and Sora rushed in. When he got to the other end, he was in the Spirit World arena. Unlike before, the stands were full. Little white orbs inhabited the stands and were cheering and chattering away.

"What are those things?" he asked and Koenma replied "Spirits, of course."

"So who am I gonna fight?"

"Whoever wins this first match." Koenma answered pointing to the ring and Sora whirled around to gaze at the two titanic figures that entered. One was an orange human-like giant with one eye and a horn on top of it's head. The second was a lean black dragon. It was covered in a dull black carapace It had long spikes coming out of it's knees, a green-purple mane, and two long rigid horns protruding from it's skeletal head.

The creatures were announced as "Opticlops" and "Berserk Dragon".

Berserk Dragon began the fight by spewing round red balls of flame at Opticlops, who put his arms up in defense. The assault prevented Optclops from moving but Koenma pointed out that Berserk Dragon was becoming weaker with each blast. Finally, the elderly dragon was out of breath and out of energy, Opticlops grabbed a hold of the dragon's skinny neck and began to bend and twist it. The dragon struggled feebly, flapping it's decrepit wings and clawing Opticlops' massive arms. Finally there was a loud crunch and Opticlops ripped Berserk Dragon's neck from it's shoulders, then hurled it high into the air. It beat it's fists against it's chest and roared in triumph.

"I'm gonna have to fight that thing by myself?" Sora asked in disbelief. "Would you like to?" Koenma offered and Sora shook his head fiercely. Neither Darkside nor Guard Armor were anything like this.

"Tenchi, you want to help Sora?" Koenma asked.

Sora turned around to see an older boy approaching. He had spikey black hair with a pony tail in the back and was dressed in a deep blue robe. He and Sora walked into the ring together and Opticlops started drooling. Tenchi drew what looked like the hilt of a sword. It was flat and rounded at the bottom and it produced a blazing blue blade of energy.

"What's that?" Sora asked and Tenchi responded "It's my Tenchi-ken."

Both of Opticlops' arms shot down to swat them but they each dashed out of the way, hopped on an arm, ran up to it's shoulders and landed some strikes on it's head.

When they landed, Tenchi reached out and told Sora to take his arm, Sora did so without question, ignoring all logic and following his instincts instead. Tenchi began swinging Sora around and Opticlops watched in fascination. Tenchi hurled Sora toward Opticlops' face, Sora didn't even have time to pick a target he swung so hard his arms stretched a few inches and broke a few of Opticlops' teeth. Opticlops clutched it's mouth and let out a moan, it fell back and landed on it's posterior, it was almost out of the ring too. It was a good thing the arena was so spacious otherwise the stands (and maybe their contents) might have been crushed. This was all Tenchi needed, he hurled himself at the giant and stabbed it in the forehead. It fell back and it's head hit the outside of the ring with a crash and after a few seconds, it's body crumbled into dust, it was just Sora and Tenchi now.

Tenchi wasted to time and began with a few horizontal strikes which Sora blocked and a vertical slash, which he had to leap back from. Tenchi jumped high into the and Sora jumped up to meet him, they exchanged a few strikes and parries, then Sora did a midair roll to avoid a stab from Tenchi. As they landed, Sora realized that they were evenly matched. Then he remembered, his magic.

"Deep Freeze!" he commanded , he sprayed ice crystals from the tip of his Keyblade and Tenchi got a face full of it. Sora shot a small ball which melted the ice, finally he sent a bolt of lightning which shocked Tenchi. Before he could retaliate, Sora landed a spinning strike which knocked him out of the ring. The audience wailed it's applause for Sora, he grinned widely, resting his hands on the back of his head. Tenchi got up to shake Sora's hand but ran for the exit when he saw several girls running toward him, he sprinted out with the girls not far behind.

"You did well today." Koenma said to him. "Are you ready to return?"

"Sure," Sora said "but…can we have breakfast first?"


	8. Feudal Japan

_It's me again, ShaD.23. Our man Darkruler64__ asked me to take this chapter too, so tell me how it looks._

* * *

Sesshomaru and Garlic Junior strolled through the village. Empty and quiet, the villagers long fled away. At that moment, a forest imp hurried up to the two, weezing.

"Have you found Kagome yet, Jaken?"

"Not yet, milord, but I have the Heartless combing this village!" he said with a bow. "She'll have to come out sooner or later."

"I'll take it from here." Sesshomaru said turning his back to Garlic Jr. "You can leave now."

"I'm sending Riku to help you." the small, cloaked figure hissed. "We need all seven princesses, any less is no good."

"I don't need any help." Sesshomaru said, his voice still empty of any emotion " This world belongs to me now, I can run it myself." His piece spoken, he glided off. Seeing her opportunity, a young girl peaked out from an empty wagon. Still undetected, she quickly leapt out and silently hurried off.

* * *

The boys landed in a small clearing in the forest (next to a small well), and decided make their way into the village at once. Halfway there, they were confronted by a handfull of Nightwalkers. While Krillin and Gohan took out theirs in a few seconds, Sora decided to take his time with his, wearing it down more and more until, finally, it couldn't take anymore and was felled. The three continued on with no more distractions until they found the village. Hearing a sound nearby, they hurried to see if they could spot whatever made it. Into an alleyway they charged, running into a girl near Sora's age with long, black hair, dressed in a red and white Shinto robe.

"Who... who are you? You don't look like Heartless."she sputtered. Sora explained who they were (without revealing too much ) and she did the same, ending with her name: Kagome.

"You gotta find Inuyasha." she plead. "If anyone can stop Sesshomaru, it's him."

"So..." came a wicked sneer from above. "The little half-demon is still stubbornly clinging to life... the fool!" The four looked up and saw him, bushy silver hair, clad in a white kimono with a red honeycomb pattern and a spiked pauldron on his shoulder. A menacing grin spread across his face, Sesshomaru glowered down at them. "I'll deal with him when the time comes but first I'll deal with you three." He raised his arm, summoning a squadron of Heartless, large Pot Spiders among them. Kagome hurried off as the boys took on the Pot Spiders and forced the other Heartless down another alley, into a corner and finished them off as well. No sooner had they left the alley were they met by a hulking, winged blue Heartless.

"You gotta be kiddin' me." Krillin breathed as the three readied themselves once more. Just as the beast lunged, a dark shape dropped down and stabbed it in the back with a massive blade. Sora looked at him up and down. He was dressed in a flowing, red kimono and had white hair identical to Sesshomaru, dog ears poking out from the long locks.

"Are... are you Inuyasha?"

"You want some too?" the figure spat. Krillin nervously put up his hands.

"We're... we're friends of Kagome," he stuttered. "she needs your help."InuYasha said nothing, but continued to glare at them.** "**Look, if you don't wanna trust us, fine."Krillin waved off. "We'll help Kagome and beat Sesshomaru ourselves."

"Lead the way" InuYasha said the moment Krillin spoke the name 'Sesshomaru'. Trekking to the other side of the village, they finally caught up with Sesshomaru, who was holding an unconcious Kagome.

"Getcher claws off'a her!" InuYasha spat in fury. He leapt high at Sesshomaru who knocked him back with wave of his poison claw. Chuckling darkly, he dropped Kagome into a Pot spider, which scurried about, among a pack of others as they formed together into the Pot Centipede. It crawled outside the village, the crowd in hot pursuit (after Krillin casted a quick cure spell on Inuyasha). The Pot Centipede wasn't fast enough to get away from them, but when they began to attack at it's lower half, the pots broke file to give the head enough time to escape. Krillin used Thunder magic to shatter a few pots as Gohan used his turbo technique to smash more of them. Sora hacked down the rest of the pots with InuYasha, only to find that Kagome wasn't in any of them.

"**S**he's gotta be in the head section!" Sora called to the others

"C'mon"InuYasha called "I know where they're going!"

* * *

"What the Hell is that thing? "Sora asked in awe. Standing before them in a great, barren gorge was a skeleton of a massive, canine creature.

"It's what's left of my father." InuYasha glowered. The three turned to him in shock

"Your...your father?" Gohan stammered.

"Buried inside," InuYasha continued " is a demonic sword we call the Sounga. The Sounga has the power to open portals to the Underworld, and unleash a thousand dead warriors."

"WHAT?" the three exclaimed.

"I'd bet my soul that's what Sesshomaru's after..."

The four heroes leapt down into the gorge to find Sesshomaru and his lackey, Jaken waiting for them.

"Awright, ya got yer trinket,"InuYasha thundered. "Now let Kagome go!"

"Sorry, but we have other plans for her."Sesshomaru smirked as Garlic Jr. stepped into the light.

"The Heartless will help you,"he said with glee "but do not fail me."

He summoned up a pack of Rabid Dogs and teleported away. Sora, Krillin, and Gohan kept them away while Inuyasha dueled back and forth with his brother. Sesshomaru tried to use his Poison Claw once more on Inuyasha, but he was no fool, quickly jumping to the side and knocking his brother away with a Wind Scar, sending Sesshomaru landing in front of Sora, who swung down at him. Sesshomaru, seeing Sora was wide open, kicked him hard, sending him flying into Krillin. Gohan threw his shield at Sesshomaru while his back still was turned, hitting him in the back of the neck. He wheeled around to snarl at Gohan. Sesshomaru then let out a howl of pure rage and opened his eyes, now bloody scarlet as he transformed into his true form, a great, shaggy white dog demon. the four of them in total shock. What were they up against!

* * *

Kagome stirred awake and look around. She was alone in a rocky canyon when she felt something sneaking up on her. She turned to see a Shadow creeping, but before she could do anything, a boy with white hair, dressed in blue and yellow came out of nowhere and cleaved it with a black and red sword shaped like a demon wing.

"Take my hand." he said, sounding rather cold. "I'll get you somewhere safe."

"Th... thank you." Kagome said as she followed Riku.

* * *

Jaken took Sounga and ran. He had to be sure to keep it safe for his master. Just then, Sora caught him sneaking off and hurried after him while Inuyasha, Krillin, and Gohan tangled with Sesshomaru. The mammoth demon snapped at them his mighty jaws, swatted at them with his paws, swept them about with his massive tail, and spewed toxic fumes. After taking considerable punishment, the three collapsed. It seemed that Sesshomaru had won, and he went back to his humanoid form, turning to leave.

"Inuyasha!" Sora called (an unconscious Jaken lying at his feet), tossing the Sounga to Inuyasha who stuck it's long, thin blade into the ground, createing a deep crater. Sesshomaru stood on the surface of the portal opened underneath and a mass of festering hands reached out and grabbed him, but Sesshomaru was still to powerful to be taken by the brittle dead... or at least, he was strong enough to keep forcing his way up toward the four heroes, but he did not glare his murderous red eyes at InuYasha.

"Accursed brat" he screeched in fury. "If I'm going to Hell, I'M TAKING YOU WITH ME!"

"Not a chance, milord!" A bruised Jakken ran over to the four who were still trying to escaped the winds of the portal trying to drag them in.

"BEHOLD, THE POWER OF THE STAFF OF TWO HEADS!" the imp cried as flames erupted from his staff upon the heroes and the restless dead. InuYasha, summoning all his might to fight the winds, stomped infront of them and into the path of the flames, his red robe absorbing the staggering heat, but these flames were hotter that his robe could take. Thinking desperately, Sora tossed his Keyblade like a boomerang at Jaken, cracking him in the leg. The imp shrieked in both the pain of his leg and in terror as he flew into the air and in the direction of the portal. He struck the hilt of the Sounga, knocking it loose from the ground and it flew back at Sesshomaru, (who was almost free of both the restless dead and the portal) and lopped his arm off. Sesshomaru let out an unearthly yell of pain and flew back into the closing portal with his minion, the evil blade, and the dead. The other four collapsed after the raging wind currents died, sat up silently, looked side to side and then Sora cried "THAT WAS INTENSE!" InuYasha, however, shifted off with a grunt.

"Doesn't really care for smalltalk, does he?" Gohan whispered in his comrade's ear. Sora shrugged as he felt something on his shoulder. He looked down to see... was it a man, or a flee?

"Myoga..." InuYasha said as he stepped over to Sora to see the miniscule demon.

"Where have you been?"

"Master InuYasha," he said cryptically, "I've found something most amazing. You must come see."

* * *

The four walked back to the Gummiship and took a look inside the well. Sure enough, the keyhole was there. Sora sealed it and turned to leave.

"Those things have her... don't they?"

Sora turned to see InuYasha, no longer a grim scowl on his face, but a look of deep concern in it's stead.

"... yeah... she probably was taken by them..."

"You get her back, you hear me?" InuYasha called as Sora began to board the ship.

"You have my word!" he called. They began to lift off as InuYasha watched them leave, the sun setting in the distance.

"... take care of yourself, kid. I'm counting on you..." he said softly and with that, he turned to leave.

* * *

Garlic Jr. stood in the dingy chapel. Sure enough, Riku brought Kagome straight to him.

"I did my bit. You hold up your end of the bargain." Riku said coldly.

"That's right," the tiny ruler cackled. "And now I will honor my end, as promised." He took Riku into the Grand Hall and to Riku's surprise, Kairi was slumped in the corner.

"Kairi!" Riku gasped as he rushed over to her.

"Her body is intact, but her heart was taken by the Heartless." Garlic Jr. coldly stated.

"What can we do?" Riku asked, in growing desperation.

"There are seven young women with the purest hearts, they are called the Princesses of Heart. When they are all brought together, a door will open to the heart of all worlds. Within this door lies unimaginable power and knowledge."

Riku knew Garlic Jr. was up to something but he could somehow sense some truth in his words, so had no choice but to trust him for now.


	9. The Asteroid

The beauty of the passing stars and nebulae, the freedom from gravity, space was now Sora's favorite place to be, even more so than the ocean. He had spent his whole life on his little island (making an occasional trip to the mainland), now he was free to travel anywhere he could imagine. Krillin had been letting Sora pilot the ship for about an hour now and he had proven to be quite skilled, almost as though on instinct, then three familiar black and purple ships descended.

"Heartless ships!" Gohan pointed out.

Now Sora's skill would really be put to the test. The gummiship gave a violent swerve as he evaded a series of burning red beams from the Heartless ships and then fired right back at them. A series of white beams from the gummiship's simple cannons reduced three of the Heartless ships to dust.

"Too easy." Sora said with smug satisfaction.

Then four more Heartless ships appeared and did something Sora never expected. One by one they flew into the gummiship at full speed, shattering on impact. Sora jerked the yoke left and right in an attempt to regain control but the right wing had broken off. Just as the ship stopped spinning though, one last Heartless ship rammed itself into them, sending them hurtling toward a large slow moving asteroid, It was mostly dark red with some lighter red spots and even some yellow spots. Sora tugged the yoke back but it was no use, the ship crashed into and slid along the surface of the asteroid before coming to a stop in a shallow crater.

"The right wing is missing and the hull is pretty banged up." Gohan said after examining the ship for a few seconds.

"Gohan, do you notice anything, unusual about this asteroid?" Krillin asked.

"Who cares about the asteroid?" Sora asked throwing his arms up. "What about the ship?"

"Sora, this asteroid is made of gummi." Krillin stated, rubbing his foot on the ground for emphasis. "It's the same material used to make the ship!"

"So we can use this stuff to fix the ship?" Sora asked, now intrigued.

"Yeah, if we can find chunks that are the right shape and weight."

"…and someone with the right tools for carving them." Gohan added.

Krillin regarded his comrade with doubt.

"There's sure to be _some _explorers here, it's a big asteroid." Gohan pointed out.

"I saw someone!" Sora exclaimed, pointing to an opening in the rocks. They got closer and saw that it was the mouth of a cave and it looked like it went in very deep.

* * *

The cave was certainly deep but Krillin lit the way with his staff, finally they got to an open space and found that the light from Krillin's staff was not needed as a light was attached to the roof. Someone was definitely here. That was when they heard foot steps coming from the left. They turned to see what looked like a little boy step out of the shadows. It had very large eyes, shiny black hair with horn-like tips, and smooth, shiny skin, like a doll. It had a panel in it's torso and was dressed only in black briefs, a metallic belt and red boots.

"Hello." it said, "I'm Astroboy."

"Um…hello." Krillin said, still taking in the being's strange appearance.

Sora was the first of them to introduce himself.

"I'm Sora, this is Krillin and this is Gohan." he said.

"How did you get here, kid?" Krillin asked the boy-like being.

"In a spaceship." it answered. "I came from a world really far away. I was the first robot to ever lead an exploration. My crew and I were exploring this asteroid when some creatures appeared and attacked us. I was able to fight them off but…now I'm all that's left." As he said this, a Soldier Heartless stepped into the light.

"That's one of them!" the robot called "Astroboy" said and Sora reached out with his Keyblade and stabbed the Soldier, ending it's life.

They took Astroboy back to the gummiship and Sora briefly explained the Heartless and his mission to seal the keyhole of every world he visited. Astroboy then examined the damaged gummiship and agreed to help them fix it.

"I'll take you to the center of the asteroid. All the kinds of pieces you need are there!" He told them and lead them back to the mouth of the cave.

* * *

The deep interior of the asteroid was dry yet slippery. Sora hastily climbed down a rocky tunnel, ignoring the scrapes on his knees and elbows. Finally, he made it to the bottom were the others were waiting. Astroboy lead them down a slope into the asteroid's hollow core.

"There!" he said pointing to a large cluster of gummi embedded in a cavity in the floor.

He approached the cavity the retrieve the gummi but there was a burst of familiar purple and black smoke and when it cleared, a very large Heartless was blocking the cavity. It had an eggplant-like body, two massive tentacles, and a gaping maw with long flat teeth. It had no legs, but three small root-like appendages on it's underside. As Sora gazed at it, the name _Parasite Cage _came to mind. Before he could react, a Large Body Heartless appeared behind him and grabbed him, followed by two more which did the same to Krillin and Gohan. Astroboy zoomed around Parasite cage with his jet boots and punched it hard in the back of the head, but its rubbery body absorbed the blow. Astroboy flew around the creature to strike at it's front, but it lunged foreword and engulfed him. It's teeth closed, forming a sort of cage and trapping Astroboy inside. Sora tried to struggle free of the Large Body's grip but it held him even tighter, and then Sora saw a familiar face. Riku stood before him, indifferent to the Heartless or Sora's captive companions.

"Riku! What are you doing?" he demanded.

"Taking matters into my own hands." Riku answered coldly.

Sora's face tensed somewhat "What are you talking about?"

Riku turned toward the struggling Astroboy inside the Parasite Cage. "A robot that has feelings…even without a heart. Maybe it can help someone who has lost hers."

"Are you…talking about Kairi?" Sora asked.

"That's right, Sora. While you were out showing off that Keyblade, I found her!" He then commanded the Large Body to put Sora down.

"Why are you with the Heartless?" Sora asked.

"The Heartless obey me!" Riku declared.

Sora shook his head in disbelief. "You're crazy! Sooner or later, they'll take your heart!"

"No way, I'm too strong for that. So, how about it? Let's work together and save Kairi! We could use this robot to keep her alive until we find her heart."

Sora summoned his Keyblade, reached behind him and stabbed the Large Body in the belly. Then he lunged foreword to strike Riku, who blocked with his wing-shaped blade, using one arm.

"You'd rather fight me…over a robot?" he asked in disbelief.

"At least the robot has a conscience!"

"Conscience?"

"That's right," Sora went on, "and mine tells me that you're on the wrong side!"

Riku knocked Sora back with a kick to the chest and disappeared through a black hole. At that moment, Krillin and Gohan broke free from and bested the Large Bodies that had been holding them. The three of them landed some hits on Parasite Cage but it did not even flinch from their hits and it countered with a smack from it's tentacle. The counterattack sent the three of them flying back. Parasite Cage hopped forward and sprayed poisonous green mist from its tentacles, but Krillin put up a barrier which protected them from it. Then the creature swept both of it's tentacles and the heroes leapt back. Krillin pointed his staff and a ball of fire blossomed at the tip.

"No! You'll hurt Astroboy!" Sora cried, but Krillin shot the fire ball and it exploded on impact with Parasite Cage, engulfing it in flame, then Astroboy rocketed out of it's mouth and landed in front of Sora, who rushed over to brush the ash off of him.

"Are you alright?"

"Of course, Sora! I'm made of metal!"

* * *

It was a tedious task, with so few tools at their disposal, but The heroes managed to carve new parts and attach them to the gummi ship with Astroboy's help, albeit the ship was still dented and low on fuel. Krillin had offered to take Astroboy back to Traverse Town but Astroboy declined, saying he had other places to see. The trio bid him farewell and he took of on his own.

"Where to next?" Sora asked, sounding more worried than eager.

"The only place we're going is back to Traverse Town." Krillin answered.

On the way back, Gohan was observing Sora, who was in deep contemplation.

"You're thinking about Riku." he quietly stated.

Sora turned his head to gaze at the deep blue space. "It's not like he's doing it just to be bad."


	10. Dark Japan

The First District was unusually busy that morning. As far as Sora knew, things had been happening in the town that required Leon's attention and Krillin and Gohan had offered their services as well. Sora wanted to help but Krillin said it was not a job for kids, much to Sora's annoyance. He also felt the need to go out to search for Riku but Krillin refused to let Sora fly the Gummiship alone. He paced behind the Accessory shop getting bored and impatient when he spotted someone who could help him, "Hey, Cid! Can you do me a favor?" he asked.

"Sure, kid. Whaddya need?"

"I'm gonna take the Gummiship so I can look for Riku, but I don't want Krillin to know."

Cid nodded his understanding.

"I'll cover for ya."

"What will you tell Krillin?"

"Eh…I'll think of somethin'. You better get going."

And with that, Sora took the Gummiship into space by himself.

* * *

Amazingly, Sora had not encountered a single Heartless ship during his flight. Thanks to a warp gummi that Cid had installed, he reached the Japan system in mere minutes. He passed Feudal Japan and came to another somewhat barren looking planet. As he descended into its atmosphere he saw some definite resemblance to Feudal Japan. Once he found a place to land his ship and set out to explore the terrain, however he saw some major differences as well. Much of the land was desolate and littered with bones and wreckage. The soil was the color of dried blood, and it stank of it too. Even the evening sky was blood red. The atmosphere was also somewhat oppressive and very uncomfortable. Sora thought he could hear people screaming, though it was very faint. He was not known for being very perceptive or insightful, but even Sora could tell that a lot of people had lost their lives here and this became even clearer when he entered a village and found it deserted. He did not want to stay here for very long. He was now certain that Riku wasn't here so he considered leaving right away. Then it occurred to him, _the keyhole! _

_"Should I even bother? There doesn't seem to be many people left." _He thought, but then another voice inside seemed to say, "_You must seal keyholes whenever possible."_

"But how do I find it?" He asked himself aloud.

There was no response, only the sound of the howling wind, which no longer sounded like people screaming. As he walked, he stepped in something gelatinous. He lifted his foot to see he had stepped on a mysterious glob of dark purple goo. There were several others growing out of the ground like pustules. Suddenly, two Shadows burst out of one and went immediately for Sora, with a swing of his Keyblade he reduced them to black vapor. He smashed all of the globs and decided to head east.

* * *

Sora walked east for close to an hour, directed only by his instincts when he finally saw a sign of life, but it was not what he would have called "life." Two Heartless had confronted him. They were dressed in black and red robes, with ponytails on their heads. Each one carried a short sword. On the path above him, Sora could see a number of them, maybe twenty of them and they were attacking a man. He ignored the ones that appeared before him and leapt to the path above him and took out whatever Heartless that the man did not. Once they were all gone, sora and the man who was under attack turned to face each other. The man was unlike any Sora had ever seen, his face was gaunt and sullen. He had dark skin and big bushy hair with a slight greenish tint. He wore a long white headband around his forehead and carried a sword with a long, curved blade and a square handguard.

"Are you the only person around here?" Sora asked him and the man simply stared.

"Uh…sorry…it's just, I'm not from around here." He went on and after a few seconds the man turned his back on him and said, "Thanks for helping me, but you should leave." Then he walked away but Sora ran up to him and walked beside him.

"Those things that attacked you, they're after your heart." He said and the man replied, "I know."

"Well they're not just after people's hearts." He said and the man stopped. "They're after the heart of this world too, that's why I'm here." He said, showing the man his Keyblade. "I need to seal the keyhole of this world so it will be safe from them, otherwise it will disappear…like my world did." He fought back tears at the thought of never seeing Destiny Islands again.

"Will you help me?"

The man glanced to the east for a moment and then back at Sora.

"Let's go." He finally said.

* * *

Sora and the man who had introduced himself as "Afro" sat at a small campfire under the scarlet evening sky. Sora told Afro about his quest to find his friends and seal the hearts of the worlds and so Afro had decided to tell Sora about his past, which was quite surprising. He revealed himself to be a samurai warrior and told Sora about a legendary headband called "The Number One Headband." It gave its wearer god-like powers, the power to rule the world. Afro's father once possessed this headband and had planned on hiding it, but one day he was confronted by a man known only as "Justice." This Justice possessed the "Number Two" headband, and so he was the only one who had the right to challenge Afro's father. Afro was only a child at the time and he watched as Justice fought and killed Afro's father, then walked away with the Number One headband. After that, Afro silently vowed that he would find Justice and kill him. Over the years, Afro had fought and killed many people who challenged him because he had the Number Two headband. Afro sought revenge, something that Sora did not fully understand, but it was not in his nature to judge people. His mother had told him that whenever he felt the urge to judge someone, he should resist it, but he had never felt the urge to judge someone, not even now.

"Are you still gonna kill this Justice guy?" he asked Afro.

"I have no choice, now that he controls the Heartless…but you let me worry about that. All you need to worry about is sealing the keyhole, and I think I know where it is."

* * *

Sora and Afro made their way through an old and battle-worn temple. Periodically, a swarm of Shadows would crawl out of the darkness and attack. Some were normal sized but most were not much bigger than cockroaches, and there were dozens of them. They took the tiny ones out easily enough then a grouped of the robed samurai Heartless appeared. They all fought with the same moves, vertical and occasional horizontal strikes, not unlike Sora who never cared much for form.

"Strike from your subconscious mind." Afro instructed.

Sora turned his head away from the Heartless he had locked blades with. "What?"

"Listen to your subconscious, be unpredictable."

Sora had but a faint idea of what Afro was telling him. He closed his, spun on his foot and swung his blade in a horizontal arc, when he opened his eyes he saw that he had beheaded several of the Heartless. Before he could really appreciate what he had done, Afro seized Sora's wrist and took him up to roof.

"What now?" Sora asked, rubbing his wrist and Afro replied, "Climb."

* * *

Sora and Afro climbed many meters up the mountain. As he climbed, Sora glanced at the two giant stone hands stretching up on either side of it.

"Focus" Afro said coldly yet sharply.

"_Okay, geeze" _Sora wanted to say, but he kept silent. At last they reached the barren and icy top of the mountain.

"uh…" Sora started to say, but Afro strode onward without a word and they entered a cave. They made their way down a hall lined with statues of monstrous looking blue creatures with golden horns and tears of blood coming from their eyes. When they got to the end of the hall, it seemed that they had come to a dead end but a light shone down on them from above and the next thing they knew, they were in some sort of shrine. Everything was reflected on the floor and several long spikes protruded from it, a human skull was at the end of each spike and each skull had a white headband around it. Above them were what looked like blood red clouds.

In the back of the room was a throne, and sitting in it was a man. His face was hidden under a wide-brimmed hat but his skin was as white as bone and his ribs could be seen through his torso, he seemed to be decomposing. As he lifted his head, Sora finally got a look at his hideous visage. His eyes were glazed white and he had a most wicked grin. He must have been Justice.

"What took you so long kid?" He asked in his gravelly voice. "I was getting tired of waiting."

Afro glared back at Justice with unmistakable hatred, then Justice rose from his throne and drew two guns, one of them had a very long barrel.

"You ready to die like your pappy?" he taunted. Afro ran toward him and he fired two shots. Afro ducked from the first shot and deflected the other with his blade. Meanwhile, Sora was trying to locate the keyhole. The Keyblade was vibrating, indicating that it was near. Then it appeared on Justice's throne and Sora rushed over to seal it.

"Oh no ya don't!" he heard Justice call. At that moment, Heartless were attacking Sora. There were two Shadows as big as Sora and two more of the Samurai Heartless, Sora dodged the first Heartless and it's blade went into it's partner instead. Then Sora whirled and slashed the two Shadows open. He looked up and saw maybe twenty more of them on the ceiling, watching him. That did it, Justice had to be stopped before he could seal the keyhole.

* * *

Despite the shots Justice fired, Afro got close enough for a killing blow. As Justice raised his arms, Afro sliced them off with a single slash. As he was ready to run Justice through, Justice did something Afro had never expected. Time seemed to slow and out of Justice's back shot a third arm holding a rusty and bloodstained sword. _Of course..._That was how his father died, he knew it now. But before Justice could slay Afro, Sora hurled himself into Justice and hacked the arm of with his Keyblade. Afro wasted no time, he sliced into Justice's neck, shoulders, and midsection. He staggered back a few feet then fell to peices. The Shadows dropped down from the ceiling and crawled over to the dismembered Justice.

"Aw hell..." he rasped weakly as the Shadows dragged him into a dark portal they had opened in the floor.

"Sora, the keyhole." Afro said.

"Right"

The familiar beam of energy shot from the tip of the keyblade and into the keyhole, sealing it forever.

* * *

Sora and Afro stood next to the Gummiship under the pitch black sky.

"I uh...have to say goodbye for a while." Sora said akwardly. On Destiny Island, people did not give farewells, they just said things like "See you tomorrow" or "See you later." They did not really believe in "goodbyes." Then an idea popped into Sora's mind.

"Why don't you come with me? I could take you someplace where you can start a new life and..."

Before Sora could finish, Afro shook his head and said, "This is where I belong."

Sora could feel empathy welling up inside him but he nodded his understanding and Afro clasped Sora's hand firmly.

"Take care, my friend."

"You too."

With that, Sora got into the Gummiship and blasted back into space.

* * *

As Sora made it back to Traverse Town, he found Krillin and Cid waiting for him and Krillin was not looking too happy.

"Sorry." Cid said, scratching the back of his head. "I couldn't think of anything to tell em'."

Sora sighed, he was going to get a stern talking to for this, no doubt.


	11. The Second Match

"Punch, punch, kick, **Combo!**" Yuffie cried gleefully. She and Sora were playing a fighting game and she was beating him badly. Sora had never really been good at video games.

"I'm Kickin' yer ass!" she jeered. And then a familiar voice said, "I hope you fare better in today's match." Sora turned around to see Koenma floating before him.

"Hey, Koenma!" He said, jumping to his feet. Yuffie looked from Sora to Koenma and giggled.

"Your coach is a toddler?"

A bulging vein developed on Koenma's forehead.

"Uh, excuse my friend." Sora said with an awkward grin.

"Allright, sign me up!" Yuffie demanded.

"You?" Sora and Koenma asked together.

"Sure!" she said, "I'm every bit as tough as Sora."

"Well I could use some more fighters." Koenma admitted "We can leave as soon as you're ready."

* * *

Once again, the arena was filled with spirits. If felt exhilarating to be back and Sora wondered what new challenges Koenma had in store for him. Yuffie took a moment to take in the new surroundings.

"You ready for this?" she asked, nudging him in the side.

"Of course I am." Sora answered. Then Koenma floated in between them and said, "Your opponent will be the Red-Eyes Black Dragon, and you'll be fighting together. As soon as it's defeated you'll fight each other." At that moment, a large dragon descended into the ring. It had massive wings, a sharp beak, long horns, and eyes that gleamed like rubies. Almost every inch of its body was covered in a lustrous black carapace.

"That thing is badass looking!" Yuffie exclaimed, and the beast wasted no time attacking. It opened its beak wide and launched a burning ball of flame with black lightning bolts dancing along its surface. Yuffie flipped to the right to dodge it and flung three ninja stars which barely scratched the dragon's beak. Sora charged forward and hurled himself at the dragon, he attempted to stab it in the heart but the Keyblade could not pierce its carapace. Then it whirled around and struck him with its tail, sending him flying back. Yuffie then ran along the length of its back, jumped high into the air and flung her large shuriken and its head, it scraped against the dragon's head and circled back to her. As she landed, she hurled it hard at the dragon's neck but it bent down and the shuriken passed over its head. As the dragon began stomping toward her, Sora flung his Keyblade at its back then summoned it back into his hand, enough to get the dragons attention. The dragon spat several fire balls at Sora but he was ready, he held out his Keyblade and let each fire ball hit it. Now the blade was red-hot, which was just what Sora needed. As the dragon stepped toward him it tried to knock him away with its tail again, but he jumped over it and sprinted toward Yuffie.

"Help me reach its head!"

She held out her arms as Sora approached, she grabbed his free arm, swung him around once and hurled him at the dragon's head as it approached and he thrust the red-hot Keyblade right between the dragon's eyes. It roared in fury and thrashed its head about, with Sora hanging onto the Keyblade still embedded in its skull. "Fire!" he commanded and a mass of flames were shot into the dragon's skull, he let go, dropped to the floor and rolled aside as the dragon collapsed and shattered into a million pieces. Immediately, Sora picked up his Keyblade and ran to meet Yuffie, who smirked and ran to match him. He delivered a few thrusts and slashes which she parried with her shuriken, and then she evaded him with a series of cartwheels and handsprings and hurled her shuriken at him. He knocked it away with his Keyblade then shot an ice crystal at her which she shattered with a roundhouse kick, but her foot instantly became frozen. Sora charged at her for a finishing blow and she countered by knocking him back with her free leg, but this caused her to lose her balance. Seeing his opportunity, Sora swept his leg and knocked her out of the ring.

* * *

"How much more are there in this tournament?" Sora panted as he sat on a bench in the locker room. Just then, the miniscule figure of Koenma came to a halt before Sora.

"I hope you're not about to cave in on us, Sora." Koenma began "You're heading to the finals, now."

"Who is it? Another wave of Bandits? Jeez, my back's still killin' me."Sora groaned, remembering a botched sumersault.

"Your next opponent is a swordsman who came from a long travel."Koenma explained. "Best be sharp around him, Sora." With that, Keoman left in a brisk walk, leaving Sora pondering to himself. A swordsman for his last opponent?

* * *

Sora stood at his side of the arena, waiting for his opponent to show. Amid the overpowering cheer of the crowd, Sora could hear the clang of steel on stone. Then he saw it. A figure in a thick, brown garb and a wide-brimmed, straw hat walking slowly into the arena, his geta clanging loudly as he came to meet Sora. Coming to a halt, he trew his poncho off to reveal his lanky figure and red robe.

"The final battle!"announced Koenma. "Will be fought between Sora and the mysterious worrior, Mugen!" The ding was deafening. Apparently, this crowd seemed to like this contender. "Now, on my mark."Koenma began, but Mugen already shot for Sora, swinging his odd blade for him.

"Hey! The match hasn't begun, pal!"Sora shouted, drawing the Keyblade.

"I could care-hic-care less, kid!" Mugan spat from under his hat. As the crowd cheered Mugen on, he spun wildly for Sora, who had barely enough time to leap out of the way of the deadly sweep. Mugen's blade sunk into one of the spires marking the arean corners and quickly began jerking at it. Seeing his chance, Sora dove for Mugen, tackling him and sending his hat flying. The two climbed to their feet and looked the other in the face. Sora saw Mugen's wild, untidy hair floating int the breeze and could tell he was severly drunk from the red in his cheeks. Sora hurried for his inebriated foe and swung hard, only to be skillfully countered by the steel bottom of Mugen's sandal. Stunned, Sora took a kick to the face and went spiralling into the middle of the ring. Looking up quickly, he quickly rolled away as Mugen plummeted down for a stab, leaping the next moment as Mugen crashed with such force, he cracked the stone arean. Seeing Sora descending a moment later, Mugen began what looked like a dance routine and finished with a leaping kick for his opponent. Sora had barely enough time to dodge as he landed on his belly.

"C'mon, kid!" Mugen jeered. "Just lemme take you down easy, would ya?"

"No way! I'm not givin' up!" spat Sora. He ran for Mugen, who simply lifted a foot, letting Sora run straight into his heel. Flopping back, Mugan began to step over to Sora's side.

"Well, well, well, kid. HIC! I guess this match wasn't such a biggie after all..." Lifting his blade to deliver the finishing blow, Sora began to shuffle back.

"Wait! You can't kill me!" Sora said theatrically. "Hey, kid." Mugen said with a snicker. "You're my opponent. Let's not forget the number one rule: Accidents happpen. Have a nice day." With that, Mugen swung down with both hands, Sora barely able to counter in time. The force of Mugen's attack was too much. He was beginning to falter. He had to get out of this one. Thinking desperately, he rolled to the side and kicked Mugen hard in the side. Mugen growled and lunged for Sora. The crowd began to laugh loudly as Mugen chased Sora hopelessly around the arena. After about twenty seconds, Sora stopped and looked back to see Mugen catching his breath. Then he remembered one spell Baba taught him that he had not tried yet, the gravity spell. He pointed the keyblade at Mugen and cast the spell, a clear black sphere surrrounded Mugen and his legs began to wobble, then he collapsed into the floor creating a web of cracks. Sora walked over to him and nudged him with his foot and saw that he was knocked out. Then two ogres came in and carried the unconscious Mugen away. "Gotta hand it to ya." said a voice behind Sora, he turned around to see Yuske.

"I didn't think you were gonna win, but you surprised me. You may even get to fight me in the finals."

"When are the finals?"

"In two days."

And with that he turned to leave.

_Two days..._Sora thought, _but can I keep doing this?_

"What's wrong, Sora?" Yuffie asked as she approached him.

"Shouldn't I be out looking for Riku and Kairi, instead playing games and stuff?"

Yuffie regarded him for a moment, then grinned.

"If they're out there, you'll find them." she said, slapping her hand on his back. "Trust me, I _Know_ these things!"


	12. The Cerulean World

After sleeping peacefully for almost eight hours, Sora could sleep no more. He went into Krillin's room and bounced on his bed

"C'mon, wake up!"

"Sora, it's Six in the morning!"

"I can't sleep anymore!"

Krillin finally got up with an exasperated groan and found Gohan waiting in the hall.

"He woke you up too?" he asked and Gohan nodded, looking equally irritated.

At breakfast, Sora and Gohan gobbled up a plateful of eggrolls and vegetable rolls.

"You eat almost as much as my dad." Gohan pointed out and Sora looked up at him, looking fascinated.

"How muff duff he eat?" Sora asked with a full mouth.

"Let's not even go there." Krillin replied.

After the three had eaten their fill, they got into the Gummiship. Just as Krillin was about to close the hatch, Aerith ran up to them.

"Take this with you." she said, holding out a small, fiery-orange feather. "This is a Phoenix Down, I hear it can revive you even if you're inches from death."

Gohan took the Phoenix Down and placed it in a pouch he had slung over his shoulder. After Aerith wished them a safe journey, they set out once more. Sora could not help but think they were going to need the Phoenix Down very soon.

* * *

After an hour and a half of cruising through space (with the occasional Heartless ship) the trio finally came to a world that they had not been to. It was almost completely covered in cerulean blue ocean. They circled the world twice and found a mass of land just large enough to fit the ship on. When they got out, Krillin and Gohan started making their way into the water.

"What are you doing?" Sora called. Were they just going to swim in their clothes?

"We'll look for the keyhole underwater." Krillin answered.

"How?"

"My magic will help us." Krillin stated and he took out a small book and started chanting in some arcane language. The three of them began to glow and when Sora looked down to examine his lower body, it had morphed into the lower body of a dolphin, it reminded him of a merman from stories he had heard as a child. Gohan's lower body was that of a whale, his shield resembled a sea turtle's shell, and Krillin had the lower body of an octopus. They had to crawl along the shore but once they got to the open sea, they made their descent.

As the trio made their way through the tranquil cerulean sea, Sora marveled at all the strange creatures they passed; small manta ray-like creatures with very cute faces, schools of heart-shaped fish, little blue sea turtles and sea horses, a blue and white sea dragon with a long serpentine body and a blue jellyfish-like creature with glowing red bulbs on its head. Before he could get a good look at any others, Gohan patted his arm and pointed to a nearby cave. When they got inside, they did not find the keyhole but something else. There was a deep impression in the wall that looked like something might fit into it. After examining it for a few moments, they turned around and saw a girl floating before them. She had a mane of orange hair, aqua green eyes, and a mermaid's tail.

"Who are you?" she asked. Her voice was feminine and friendly, but not without the same youthful energy as Sora's. Krillin was the first to introduce himself, followed by Gohan. The girl turned to look at Sora and waited for him to to do the same, but Sora was at a loss for words. Krillin elbowed him in the side and he came to his senses.

"Uh, I'm Sora." He said, a little embarrassed. The girl gave a slight chuckle and introduced herself as "Misty."

"I don't usually see people here," She said, "Are you from the outside world, like me?"

The three heroes looked at each other, unsure whether they should answer.

"It's okay." Misty said "You don't have to answer."

Finally, Sora spoke up, "We came here to find a keyhole."

"Sora!" Krillin hissed in protest, but Misty seemed to understand.

"So you must be the keybearer!" she concluded.

"You know about the Keyblade?" Sora asked, amazed.

"Oh yeah,we hear a lot of legends where I come from!" Misty replied.

"So could you help us find the keyhole?"

"I could try," she said, then three black and white jellyfish-like creatures came speeding into the cave, "but first you need to help me get rid of these things!"

Sora could tell by the emblems on their heads that the creatures were Heartless. He swam forward and stabbed one in the face with his Keyblade while Krillin encased the other two in ice crystals. A fairly large one appeared and reached for Misty with its tentacles.

"Look out!" Sora cried.

Misty did a graceful spin and smacked the Heartless hard in the face with her tail, stunning it so Sora could finish it with his Keyblade.

"You're pretty good with that." Misty said, Sora grinned and replied "You should see me when I'm actually trying."

With his new merman body, Sora could swim faster and further than ever before. As Misty lead them deeper into the sea, it got dark and cold, but their new bodies gave them some protection. They were now approaching the sea floor where little sunlight penetrated. Luckily, Krillin's staff provided ample light. As they got to the sea floor, a sunken ship came into view. It was a fairly ominous sight to see, the bottom of the hull looked as though it had been smashed open. What on this world could have the power to do that?

"It looks dangerous." Krillin said.

"But I think it's where I need to go." Sora insisted, and Krillin folded his arms.

"Fine, go and risk your life if you want." He shot.

"Alright, I will!" Sora shot back and he swam toward the sunken ship.

Misty glowered at Krillin.

"Are you gonna let him go in by himself?"

"Yep."

Rather than respond to this, Misty took off after Sora.

"I'm gonna go too." Gohan declared and he went right behind Misty, leaving Krillin alone.

"Wait up!" Krillin called, trying unsuccessfully not to sound too scared.

Sora made his way into the ship with Misty and Gohan right next to him. Krillin waited next to the opening.

"I don't think the keyhole's in here!" he called, but they ignored him.

"So Misty, why'd you come here?" Sora inquired.

"To get closer to all the pokemon." Misty replied. "Someday, I'm going to be the world's greatest water pokemon trainer, and I'll finally have something my sisters don't!"

Sora reached out to open a large, thick wooden chest when something burst out and snapped at him. It was a long blue and orange eel-like creature which Misty instantly identified as a "Huntail." Gohan was quite startled by it too, but Misty marvled at it. When the Huntail was gone, Sora reached into the chest and picked up a glistening blue crystal no bigger than his palm.

_Its shape reminds me of something…. _Sora thought, and then he remembered the impression in the wall of the cave they met Misty in.

"Watch it!" Misty cried, as she pulled Sora away from the window. Sora looked up in alarm and saw a gaping maw with four pointy teeth as long as his arms come crashing through. When they got outside, they were confronted by a massive sea dragon. It had a segmented blue body, as long as the ship, white fins along its back and on each side of its face and a pointed crest on its forehead, but Sora was focused on the creature's enormous mouth, which could easily swallow him whole. He also imagined its bite was capable of splitting him in half.

"What is that thing?" Sora asked as it came rushing toward them. As they barely evaded it Misty replied, "It's a Gyrados!" sounding more excited than afraid.

The Gyrados circled them a few times, charged at them again, and they dived under it. It turned to face them, opened its mouth and fired a golden beam of energy, which Gohan blocked with his shield, though the impact of the blast was enough to send him tumbling back. Sora had his Keyblade ready as the Gyrados slithered toward them again.

"Don't kill it!" Misty cried.

As the Gyrados got close, Krillin pointed his staff and discharged a spray of gold energy into its eyes. It hovered for a moment and sunk to the sea floor; Misty gasped as its eyes grew heavy and closed.

"What did you do?" she demanded.

"Relax, I just put it to sleep." Krillin assured her, "But it could wake up at any minute."

"C'mon, let's get back to that cave." Sora insisted, holding up the crystal he found.

Misty lead the three heroes hastily back to the coral reef, they were a few meters away from the cave when they saw something that made Misty gasp in horror. A massive orca whale-like pokemon was attacking the reef. It was deep purple and black with bright red markings on its enormous fins and it attacked by shooting dark purple beams from its mouth.

"What is that?" Sora asked.

"It's Kyogre…" Misty replied, "It's the most powerful pokemon in this world, but it's usually peaceful!"

"It's the Heartless!" Sora concluded "It's gotta be!"

"Well, whatever it is, we have to stop it before it destroys this place!" Gohan declared and the three of them swam toward Kyogre, ignoring Misty's protest. Sora hurled his Keyblade at the side of its head and summoned it back into his hand and hurled it again but it seemed to do little damage and a bolt of lightning from Krillin seemed to only make it angry. It rocketed forward and slammed into Krilin, sending him flying and then turned to face Sora. It opened its mouth and fired another dark beam. Sora held his Keyblade in front of him, ready to block the beam, but before it got close to him a blast of water propelled him away from it as it seared its way past him. He looked to his right to see what had saved him and saw Misty riding on the back of a large blue sea turtle-like pokemon with what looked like cannons growing out of its shell. Before Sora had a chance to thank them, Kyogre hurled itself toward him with its mouth wide open. Suddenly, the word _release _entered in his mind. When Kyogre was only a few feet away from him he dived under it, pointed his Keyblade at its heart and spoke the command:

"Release!"

A thin white beam of light shot from the Keyblade's tip and into Kyogre's heart. It roared and writhed for a few moments until six black orbs flew out. Kyogre let out a groan and began to sink to the reef below. The six orbs Sora had driven out of it bagan to circle him; each one was the size of a blitzball, had a hazy purple aura around it and a pair of beady yellow eyes. They were Heartless, just as Sora had believed and the name _Possessors _instantly came to mind. They circled him for a moment and then fused into one massive Possessor. But Sora was not impressed; they were not going to stop him. He thrust his Keyblade into its left eye and its whole form dissolved. Having eliminated the threat, he rushed down to join the others who were at Kyogre's side. It was lying unconscious on the reef. Its skin had returned to its natural blue and white color, but it was badly scratched up and it did not seem to be breathing.

"Is there anything you can do?" Misty asked.

"The Phoenix Down!" Gohan remembered. He reached into his pouch and pulled it out without knowing what he was doing, he placed it on Kyogre's side.

"Now what?" Misty asked anxiously.

"I guess we just wait and see if it works." Krillin answered.

Without warning, Kyogre's eyes flew open and it rocketed to the surface. The four friends swam up and saw that it was gliding through the air, using its fins as wings. After staring in amazement at it for a few moments, Krillin was the first to speak.

"Um yeah, speaking of flying…we should get back to Traverse Town, don't ya think?"

"I need to seal the keyhole!" Sora declared and he dived back down and entered the cave. He found the impression on the wall and placed the crystal in it, it fit perfectly. A film of light spread over the wall and the keyhole was revealed; Sora pointed the Keyblade and shined its magical beam into it, after a few moments, the keyhole vanished. Yet another world was safe from the Heartless.

"What are you gonna do now, Misty?" Sora wanted to know.

"I've still got a lot of pokemon to see." She replied.

"I hope you find them all."

"And I hope you make all the worlds safer."

* * *

Finally the three heroes left the cerulean world behind them, Sora had not found Riku but he had sealed another keyhole and saved a life. He could not wait to tell Aerith that the Phoenix Down really worked.


	13. Accursed Dominion

Aerith was quite pleased to hear that the Phoenix Down had worked so well. He asked her for another but she said that it was the only one she had, so Sora was going to need an extra potion; he was on his own today. As he entered the Item Shop, he saw two girls at the counter. One looked close to his age, had magenta hair, wore blue and was fast asleep with her head resting on the counter. The other was younger, had silver hair, yellow eyes, wore a black dress with white lace, and was stroking a little black bat that rested in her palm. The younger girl was the first to take notice of Sora. She nudged the older girl's arm and she bolted upright to greet Sora.

"Uh, welcome! Do you need something?"

"One potion, please." Sora requested, and the girl whirled around and handed him a plastic cup full of hot liquid. Sora stared down at the cup and said, "This is a cappuccino."

"Can't you do anything right?" the younger girl sighed. She took the cappuccino and handed Sora a potion. Sora stuffed the potion in his pocket and paid the girl twenty five munny.

"Do you want something else?" she asked. Sora had one hundred munny left that Gohan had lent him, more than enough for two more potions, but then he noticed an ether on the shelf. Ethers were supposed to be able to replenish most of one's energy. He purchased the ether, thanked the girl and left.

Karin watched the boy curiously as he hurried out of the shop. Her sister, Anju went back to playing with her bat.

"Why would he need a potion and an ether? She wondered and Anju replied, "Maybe he's going to fight more monsters."

* * *

As Sora pushed open the enormous doors that led outside the first district, he found Leon waiting for him by the gummiship.

"Here, Sora. Take this with you." He said holding out his fist.

Sora held his own hand out and Leon dropped a silver lion-shaped keychain in it. He remembered seeing this keychain attached to Leon's Gunblade.

"Are you sure?" he asked and Leon nodded once and walked back into town. Sora dropped the keychain in his jacket pocket, zipped it tight, started the gummiship, and took off.

The warp Gummi took Sora all the way to the Cerulean World, but he bypassed it and flew until he came to a new world, one with an enormous crimson moon. As he made his decent he saw that much of the land was rocky but there were a few dense forests. He saw a fairly large town but did not want to alert any of the people there, so he landed on the edge of a great, dark forest. Now the ship was far enough away that it would not alert the town but he would still be able to find it when he was finished here. As he got out, he noticed a swarm of huge bats circling above him. He could also see small gecko-like creatures crawling along the tree branches, eying him. As he walked, he noticed a gem lying on the ground, it was a summon gem! It would really be helpful since he left the one Leon gave him back in his room at Traverse Town. He stuffed it in his pocket and headed toward the town. He walked for about a mile when he saw something that could change his luck for the better; a great, mighty and somewhat foreboding castle atop a mountain loomed over the town. That was where he needed to go! He didn't have to go into the town and risk being found out. He would go to the castle and ask to see their ruler. If they let him in, he could tell their ruler why he was here and maybe he would let him look for the keyhole. It was definitely worth a try.

Sora trekked along the mountain path for maybe half an hour and was halfway to the castle, but the chilly night air and his tired legs were starting to take a toll on him. He plopped his bottom on a rock and hugged himself. He then heard the sound of trotting hooves and looked back the way he came to see a man riding up the path on a white, mechanical-looking horse with two horns on its head. When he got to Sora, he brought his horse to a halt and looked down at him. The man wore a black high-collared cape with a blue sheen and a black hat with a wide pointy brim. His face was lean and as pale as porcelain. His eyes were stern and intense. After taking in the man's intimidating appearance for a few moments, Sora found the courage to speak.

"Um, do think I could ride with you…just until you get to the castle?"

The man did not give a reply but continued to eye Sora like a bird of prey.

"I really need to get to that castle." Sora went on, "Please could I ride with you?"

Finally, the man held out his hand. Sora took it and the man hoisted him up so he could sit behind him. Once the horse got moving again, the man spoke.

"What's your name?" his voice was calm and stoic but there was a hint of subtle emotion in it.

"My name is Sora. What's yours?" and the man simply replied "D"

"Tell me, Sora. What business do you have at the castle."

"I'm looking for this…keyhole and…and I'm hoping whoever lives there will let me look for it."

"Keyhole…" the man called D repeated, "I believe I have heard the count talking about a keyhole."

"So this maybe he'll let me look for it in his castle." Sora concluded.

"Don't count on it." D replied. "Count Magnus Lee is ruthless and cruel. His power over this world is absolute and he'll want it to stay that way. The Count is said to be almost five-thousand years old. He is usually not very active because of his age, but sometimes he takes a woman from the town and makes her his prisoner, and when he tires of her, he feeds her to his monsters."

"That's horrible!" Sora exclaimed.

"That's why I'm going to the castle…to put an end to him." D said, there was a hint of determination in his tone.

"I hope you do." Sora said.

"It won't be easy, especially now that he has the Heartless on his side."

"Heartless!" Sora gasped, "He must be working with Garlic Junior! You may need my help!"

"No, Sora. This is between me and the count. Your only concern is finding that keyhole." D said calmly but firmly.

"Alright." Sora sighed; he knew D was right.

Finally they reached the castle; it was enormous and looked like it was made of fairly advanced technology. The sky above was covered in thick black clouds filled with lightning. Before they could examine it further, they were greeted by a dozen Shadows. They jumped off the horse and attacked the swarm head-on. D was quite the swordsman and his long curved blade let him take out several Shadows at once. As soon as the last Shadow was bested, a swarm of horned purple heartless with bat-like wings on their backs. As Sora looked at these new Heartless, the name _Gargoyles _came to mind. The gargoyles began spewing balls of blue flame at Sora who protected himself with blizzard magic, then they concentrated on D who held out his left hand and produced a funnel of wind which sucked them all right into his palm, Sora had never imagined a power quite like that before. Without warning, an armored Heartless with blades of ice for hands appeared and sliced D's hand right off.

"Damn you!" D hissed and he sliced the Heartless' head off.

D's left hand crawled along the ground, up Sora's leg and torso, and then rested itself on his left shoulder. Sora went rigid from shock and stared into the palm; it had a face and was grinning at Sora. Then, to add to Sora's shock, the thing spoke.

"I do believe with hair such as yours, boy, it's no wonder the Heartless would be offended."

"At least I have hair!" Sora now more annoyed than creeped-out.

"Oh, you're so hurtful." The hand retorted, its voice was bubbly but alive with sarcasm.

"He seems to like you." D said with a hint of dry humor in his voice. "Why don't you go together?"

"How do we get in?" Sora asked, indicating the drawbridge, which was almost closed.

D grabbed a hold of Sora and leapt across the moat. They landed on the drawbridge and slid down into the courtyard. Before Sora could Thank D, he sprinted toward a tower and leapt up with the agility of a wildcat, he was out of sight before Sora could protest. He turned his head to glance at D's left hand and its unsightly face.

"Well, it looks like I'm stuck with you until I find the keyhole." He said trying not to sound irritated.

"Wonders never cease." It replied, its voice still dripping with sarcasm.

As Sora made his way across the courtyard, it added "I can already tell we're going to be good friends!" with a light chuckle.

* * *

The castle's dark corridors were littered with the bodies of dead or dying monsters. Some were withered and dried up and others were oozing slime and gore. It was a nauseating sight and the smell made it all the worse. This place was enough to give a grown man nightmares, but there was nothing Sora feared more than losing Kairi and Riku, so he ignored the death and decay that surrounded him.

"Careful boy, you're walking into a trap." The hand taunted.

"Like I care." Sora snapped.

As if on cue, a large round Heartless appeared. Its body was black with grey-blue streaks, it had a pair of twisted tentacle-like arms, a pointy tail, and a mouth full of jagged teeth. The inside of its mouth was a dark purplish blue and its eyes were beady and yellow. Sora silently dubbed it _"Darkball." _Before he could make a move, the Darkball bounced around, repeatedly slamming into him. He tried to slash it with his Keyblade, but it vanished and reappeared at the end of the hall.

"That's an intimidating weapon!" the hand jested. "Is your car that big too?"

Sora ignored the hand's jests and readied himself as the Darkball rocketed toward him. When it was within striking distance he thrust his Keyblade between its eyes but it burst into a shower of purple flames, scorching Sora and blowing a hole in the floor which he fell through (with the hand clinging tightly to his shoulder). He landed on moist, rocky ground with a painful smack and for a few moments he could not move. Once he found the strength to stand, he wiped a tear from his eye, healed himself with a Cure spell. He then removed the four-star ball keychain, attached the one that Leon gave him and the Keyblade took on a new form; it had a broad silver shaft and the tooth was shaped like a lion's head.

"Now that's a weapon fit for a warrior." The hand commented.

Sora trekked through the dark tunnel until he came to some catacombs; the ground ahead was submerged in water and littered with skulls.

"Fascinating place, the catacombs." The hand said, "Quite scenic, don't you think? And so much historical significance! There aren't many places where one can see the aftermath of a war that happened ten-thousand years ago. Maybe you'll find your keyhole down here."

"How do you know so much?" Sora inquired.

"I know all that D knows, because I am his hand!" it smugly replied.

As Sora reached the end of the catacombs, he found himself in a chamber filled with many long, coiled green strands. Perhaps it was some kind of plant or moss. The feint sound of music lured him further into the chamber and when he got to the center he found three identical women standing there, playing harps. They had pale green skin and very long mossy green hair which barely covered their bodies. They were eying him in a seductive way, though he did not find them very attractive.

"What's the matter, little boy?" the woman in the center asked in a serpentine voice.

"What's the matter?" her two sisters echoed.

"Are you lost?" The sister in the middle asked, and the other two echoed her again.

"What are you?" Sora demanded and the three sisters responded, "The Snake Women of Midwitch!" Then several dozen of the green strands that covered the ground coiled themselves around Sora and lifted him into the air. It wasn't moss, it was their hair! The sisters then morphed into their true forms, they had enormous snake bodies while retaining their humanoid heads, which were now enlarged. One leaned close to him so that their eyes met and the other two started hungrily licking his cheeks. Sora struggled furiously, both frightened and disgusted.

"We haven't feasted on a human in so long." The first sister hissed and the other two added, "We must drain him slowly and savor the taste."

"Better think of something fast, boy." The hand whispered.

Then Sora remembered the summon gem he found. He was able to move his arm just enough to reach into his pocket and clutch it.

"Help… me!" he choked.

A beam of golden light immediately shot out of the stone and shaped itself into an adorable little blue and white frog-like creature with yellow headgear. The creature landed on Sora's head and shot a salvo of energy beams from its mouth and eyes. The snake women recoiled and collapsed from the blasts and Sora managed to hack himself free with the Keyblade and landed of the many long coils of hair that covered the ground. The creature had already retreated back into the summon gem and two of the snake women were rising. Sora dashed forward and sliced one in half with a horizontal slash. The last sister lunged at him but he rolled out of the way and she crashed into the wall, creating an opening. She was not down yet, she leaned back and got ready to make another strike but Sora aimed the Keyblade between her eyes and began pelting her face with fireballs and lightning bolts. Finally, the sister made one last wild lunge at Sora so he dove to the right and flung the Keyblade into her side; that was the end of her, hopefully. He ran over to where he landed when he cut himself free, bent down and picked up D's hand, which was tangled in the countless strands of hair. Then he reached into his pocket, pulled out the ether he purchased and gulped it down. Instantly, his energy was replenished.

"I seem to have underestimated you, boy." It said, "Looks like I owe you an apology."

"Really?" Sora asked, surprised.

"No, not really." The hand replied with a chuckle. "Let's go see how much trouble D has gotten himself into."

* * *

As Sora raced through the castle's upper levels toward the throne room, he could hear someone speaking of murder.

"I don't know how many vampires you've killed with this sword but you were related by blood to each one of them. So it's only fitting that you be killed in the same way!"

It was a deep and somewhat distorted voice with a thick and very strange accent; it must have belonged to the Count Magnus Lee. As he burst into the throne room, he came face to face with the count; he was very tall and muscular. He was clad in black and had a matching black cape with a red interior draped neatly over his shoulders. His skin was surprisingly tan, but his hair was ghastly white, his face was heavily lined with wrinkles and his eyes were red with anger.

"How dare you?" he snarled.

Above the count, Sora could see D hanging suspended in the air as though held by invisible arms, and his sword hovered in front of him. It looked as though it could impale him any second, this must have been the count's doing. Sora rushed forward to attack the count, but the count shot a series of red lightning bolts from his eyes which Sora barely blocked with the Keyblade. Then he flew back a body's length as an invisible force struck his center. He sprung back to his feet, charged again and once again was hit by an invisible force. This time though he managed to stay on his feet and slid back. The count seemed to possess strong telekinetic powers so he couldn't get near him. So in desperation, he hurled the Keyblade at him. That did the trick! The count could not stop the Keyblade with telekinesis, so it hit him hard in the chest, barely breaking his skin. He pulled it out and cast it aside, but Sora immediately summoned it back into his hand. Before either of them could make another move, D dropped down with sword in hand and thrust it into the count's heart. The count groaned and gargled, staggered back, and collapsed against the wall under a portrait of a man with features surprisingly like D's. The count looked up at the portrait and back at D.

"Y-you…" he groaned, "Tell me, are you the son of our sire, Count Dracula?"

D did not answer and the count continued to stare in disbelief, a crimson stream was running down his shirt. Sora ran over to him, determined to get some information from him.

"Where is Garlic Junior?" he demanded.

The count gave a weak chuckle and replied. "In the ruins of Hollow Bastion, but you will never make it to him." With that, he had breathed his last breath and his eyelids shut. Magnus Lee was dead. Sora then turned his attention to the portrait of the man called Dracula and felt a feint vibration from the Keyblade.

"D, take that portrait down!" He said.

"Why?" D and the hand asked at once.

"The keyhole's there!" Sora insisted, "Just take it down, please!"

"Preposterous!" the hand scoffed. "Why would the keyhole be there?"

But D did as Sora asked and a large intricately carved keyhole was revealed.

"Hmm, I stand corrected." The hand commented.

Sora removed the lion's head keychain, reattached the four-star ball keychain and the Keyblade reverted to its original form. The thin white beam Sora had always looked forward to shot from its tip and sealed the keyhole with a satisfying click, then it vanished. The hand hopped off Sora's shoulder and reattached itself to the stump of D's wrist.

"That's ever so much better." It sighed.

"You did well, Sora." D said. There was definite satisfaction in his voice.

"Thanks. You were pretty amazing yourself." Sora replied with a grin. He thought he saw D smile, but it was hard to tell, maybe he imagined it.

* * *

D and Sora stood outside the castle and watched it sink into the chasm that surrounded it. The sun peaked over the horizon and the morning sky was tranquil.

"The people should be happy now that that the monsters are gone." Sora concluded.

"Well there are still many more monsters out there." D replied. "And I have to be there to eliminate them, if need be."

Sora nodded to show his understanding. He had no idea what kind of being D was but it did not matter, D was his friend.

"I'm glad I got to meet you, D." he said. "I hope I see you again."

"Perhaps you will." D said, now Sora definitely saw a slight smile on his face.

"If you're fortunate." His hand added with a light-hearted chuckle.

Sora watched D ride his horse toward the dawn for a few minutes, then turned and headed back toward the forest where he had landed. On his way there, he felt something tugging at his boot. He looked down and saw three little hamsters scurrying around his feet, looking quite excited to see him. One was orange and white, the second the other was all white with blue ribbons on its head, and the third was yellow and white with a pink ribbon around its neck. He had a feeling they were some of Baba's hamsters. He had found two in Nerima and two more in Feudal Japan. Baba was certainly going to be happy.


	14. The Finals

Sora had been up fairly late training with Baba, eager to learn some new techniques. They had trained for maybe an hour and a half before Baba insisted that Sora leave so she could sleep. But Sora was so anxious about the both Spirit World finals and Hollow Bastion that it was past midnight by the time he was able to fall asleep.

"Sora…" Krillin said, tugging Sora's shoulder "Get up!"

Sora was so sleepy that the only response he could give was a groan.

"Sora, there's a Panty and Stocking marathon."

Sora, now excited jumped out of bed and turned on the television but "Panty and Stocking" was not on.

"Hey! What's-"

Before Sora could protest, he noticed Koenma standing outside. The Finals would be starting soon. He Threw on his jacket, stuffed his feet into his boots and Stood beside Koenma.

"Today's fights are gonna the most challenging yet!" he warned. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"I'm not backing down!" Sora declared "I've been training pretty hard, and I've already been in some pretty tough fights!"

Koenma gave an approving smile and opened a portal of light. When they got to the other side they were back in the arena, close to a thousand spirit orbs were cheering in the stands. In the center of the ring was a tall tan man with a blond afro hair style. He wore a blue shirt with short bloused sleeves; the shirt barely covered his bulky chest and arms. He stood with his arms folded and his legs spread in a proud stance.

"How much did I miss?" he asked Koenma, who replied, "It's alright. It's just the first round."

Sora looked to the left and saw the imposing figure of Dark Ruler Ha Des chewing some of his less fiendish minions out, he suddenly noticed two of them trying to stuff a badly beaten fiend into a large black carriage.

"Hey! Get that nasty, slimy thing outta my carriage!" He barked, followed by a few other words that Sora did want to repeat. Ha Des then turned his attention to Sora.

"An' what are you lookin' at?" he demanded, and Sora weakly replied "Uh, nothing."

"Are you ready to get yer ass kicked?"

"Um, no I hope not."

"Then lemme see yer war face!"

"My war face? Um…"

Sora contemplated for a few moments and then showed Ha Des a great big grin. Ha Des stared for a moment and shrugged.

"I've seen worse." He remarked and with that he glided away.

Sora stepped into the ring as the blue ogre called his name and stood before his opponent.

"I am the Bo-nafide soulful Bo-tector of hair!" The strange man announced, "But you can call me Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo…or Bobobo for short! You dig?"

"Um…"

But before Sora could respond, two long tendrils of hair shot out of Bobobo's nostrils and Sora leapt back to avoid them.

"I'm smokin'! Mashed Poatah comin' your way!" Bobobo shouted, laughing maniacally.

"_This guy's got some issues." _Sora thought as he continued to dodge Bobobo's nose hairs. Suddenly several more tendrils of hair came out of Bobobo's armpits. That did it! Sora had to defeat Bobobo before he grossed him out. He rolled under Bobobo's legs and shot a fire ball from the Keyblade which hit Bobobo in the bottom, setting his pants on fire. He let out a high-pitched scream and he rushed out of the ring waving his arms wildly.

"Bobobo has fled! Sora wins this round!" the blue ogre declared.

Sora could hear laughter coming from the masses of spirits watching. He hoped that the ease of his victory would not prevent them from taking him seriously. The blue ogre then announced,

"The next round will be between Sora and Miyako Gotokuji!"

A girl close to Sora's age with blond hair set in two curly pigtails pranced into the ring. She had baby blue eyes that matched her dress and vest; she also wore a white metal belt with a large P inscribed on it and was armed with a long bubble wand. She came to a halt before Sora and gave a quick bow, which Sora returned. As soon as the gong sounded, over a dozen tiny red robed Heartless appeared and swarmed around them.

"First you will fight thirteen Red Nocturnes!" the ogre declared.

The Red Nocturnes began shooting fire balls from the antennae on their caps, which Sora easily batted away with the Keyblade.

"Rolling Bubbles!" Miyako Cried, flourishing her bubble wand. A volley of colorful bubbles shot from her wand and absorbed the rest of the weak fire balls. Then bubbles then trapped the Heartless; when they finally popped, the Red Nocturnes became soaked, fell to the ground like helpless birds, and vanished. When the Heartless threat was eliminated, Sora and Miyako faced one another and readied themselves for combat.

"I'll try not to hurt you too badly." Miyako said with a cute smile. She then sent another wave of bubbles toward Sora. He tried to break them with a thunder spell but it had no effect, when the bubbles came close to trapping him, he tried the next spell that came to mind: Blizzard. He shot a flurry of ice crystals at the bubbles, causing them to freeze, fall to the floor and shatter. Miyako then rose into the air as Sora sent another flurry at her. She began floating around the ring, launching more bubbles. Suddenly, a large cluster of ice formed at the Keyblade's tip and spread, covering the whole blade. The phrase, _Freeze Raid _then popped into Sora's mind.

"Freeze Raid!" he commanded, and he flung the Keyblade through the air. It hit Miyako in the center, in two seconds she was encased in a shell of ice and fell to the ground. After a few more seconds, the icy shell shattered and Miyako got to her feet. She stared at Sora in disbelief for a few more seconds, then gave a courteous bow with her cute trademark smile and skipped merrily into the stands.

"Sora wins by ring out!" the ogre announced. "His next opponent is Cloud Strife!"

Sora's heart gave a jolt of excitement as he saw Cloud stride into the ring.

"We're gonna have that rematch you wanted." He said, coolly as ever, and as soon as the gong sounded he swung his sword and launched three balls of flame at Sora. He held out the Keyblade and one of the fire balls exploded on impact, knocking him back as the other two rocketed past him, singeing his hair. Sora tried to spring to his feet but ended up diving and rolling to the right to avoid a stab from Cloud. He jumped to his feet, leapt back and shot a series of fire balls at Cloud, who blocked them all with the broad side of his sword. Cloud then launched a fire ball of his own at Sora; this time Sora was ready, he held the Keyblade vertically in front of him to block the fire ball and once more it exploded. This time the explosion sent Sora sliding back and scorched his hands but he stayed on his feet. He saw that the shaft of the Keyblade was now red-hot and the phrase _Fire Raid _popped into his mind.

_But If I throw it now, I'll be vulnerable! _He thought as he rolled and dashed to evade more slashes and stabs from Cloud, but the phrase lingered in Sora's mind. _Okay, fine! _He thought. He rolled aside as Cloud brought his blade down, jumped onto it and let Cloud propel him into the air.

"Fire raid!" he cried and the Keyblade became enveloped in flame as he flung it at Cloud. As he expected, Cloud blocked the attack and the impact created a burst of flame, but the force was enough to knock Cloud's sword from his hand and as soon as Sora landed, he summoned the Keyblade back into his hand, charged forward and struck Cloud hard in the head before he could attempt to grab his sword. Cloud fell back and landed hard on the floor but got right back up. He stood for a few moments, smiled, picked up his sword, then turned around and walked out of the arena.

"Cloud seems to have forfeited the match!" the ogre declared.

"Cloud!" Sora called.

But Cloud kept walking and held out his hand as if to wave to or salute Sora. Sora felt like running after Cloud but he decided to let him go. He stepped out of the ring and went to sit on a bench nearby. It was not long before Yuske entered the ring and engaged in battle with a group of Heartless; five soldiers, two Air Soldiers, and a Large Body. Sora knew Yuske was going to win but he still wanted to watch him fight. As soon as the gong sounded however, Sora felt something dark invade his mind and he was plunged into a nightmare more vivid than any he had ever experienced before.

_He was floating in a void, surrounded by blood-red clouds which quickly parted to reveal the the slimy green face and crimson eyes of Dark Ruler Ha Des. Sora could neither cry out nor move, he could only watch in terror as an enormous green hand with pointy yellow nails descended and grabbed him. It held him close to Ha Des' mouth, full of vile yellow teeth. His ears rang with Ha Des' harsh laughter and he nearly gagged on the stench of his putrid breath. Without warning, Ha Des opened his hand and Sora began tumbling through the void. Finally some ground came into view, as he got closer and closer to it he tried to scream at the sight of an open grave, and upon the gravestone, his name was engraved! Sora was a split-second away from hitting the ground when there was a blinding flash of white light before his eyes…_

And when he opened them, he was back on the bench. Yuske had just bested the last of the Heartless. Sora turned around and saw Ha Des sitting high in the stands, grinning down at him with his toothy grin.

_Did he really just get inside my head?_

"Sora!"

"Huh?"

Hearing his name being called forced Sora back to his senses. He bolted out of the bench and ran into the ring to stand before Yuske.

"The final match! Sora verses Yuske Urameshi!" the blue ogre announced as the gong sounded.

"Cloud went easy on you, but I'm not gonna!" Yuske declared and he hurled himself at Sora with his fist outstretched and burning blue. Sora dove and rolled out of the way as Yuske's fist slammed into the tile, creating a large dent. For a moment, Sora thought he would roll out of the ring but some sort of invisible wall prevented it. As soon as he got up, he was bombarded by fists and feet which sent him tumbling back. The pain was bearable but it was enough to weaken him. As he got to his feet, Yuske shot a blue beam of energy from his right index finger at him, but then he remembered a spell that Baba had taught him.

"Aero!" He announced, and a protective shroud of wind enveloped him and reduced the damage he took from the beam.

Ignoring the burning in his chest where the beam hit him, he charged forward and made several slashes, which Yuske blocked with his arms. Yuske reached back to deliver another punch but Sora shot a bolt of lightning from the Keyblade which made Yuske stagger back. With the last of his strength, Sora lifted the Keyblade over his head to strike Yuske.

"Now you're gonna…"

But before he could finish his move or his sentence, he fell to the floor.

"Sora has lost consciousness! The tournament goes to Yuske Urameshi!" the ogre cried.

Yuske picked the unconscious Sora up and slung him over his shoulder.

"For a second, it looked like Sora had the upper hand." Koenma observed, "I hope you're not getting soft on me, Yuske."

"Heh, yeah right!" Yuske retorted with a snicker. He set Sora down on the bench and turned back to Koenma.

"Whatever, I need some food."

Sora opened his eyes, sat up and rubbed his belly.

"Yeah, food sounds good." He concurred. "Um…but where's Cloud?"

"Cloud already left." Koenma said. "Don't worry, He's gonna be fine."

"Yeah, you're right." Sora said with a smile. "Well, I think I've earned some breakfast. Feed me!"


	15. Hollow Bastion

Sora stood anxiously next to Krillin and Gohan as Cid finished installing a new navi-gummi on the ship.

"Done." He said, gravely.

"Thanks again, Cid." Krillin grinned.

"No problem," Cid replied, "but that place is probably crawling with Heartless. Don't say I didn't warn ya."

Leon, Aerith, Yuffie, and Baba had also gathered outside the town to see the heroes off. Sora saw a tear slide down Aerith's cheek and went over to hug her. After he promised her that they would be alright, he hopped into the ship next to krillin.

"Be careful." Leon warned, "Garlic Junior is very evil."

"What? Like, 4KIDS Evil?" Sora asked.

"Nothing is **that** evil." Krillin remarked.

"Remember everything I taught you!" Baba strongly advised, and Sora assured her he would.

After the heroes had said their goodbyes, they blasted into space once more. The navi-gummi worked as well as Cid has promised. It guided them through warp space to the last world Sora had visited and Gohan flew them further into space toward their next destination, Hollow Bastion. This would be the day Sora rescued Kairi, he was certain of it. He just had to keep believing.

"_I believe in you…"_

_It was Kairi's voice, but before Sora could make any sense of it, there was a flash of golden light and he found himself in a library looking down upon a very young Kairi. She was sitting on the lap of an old but soft-featured woman with loving eyes. As she spoke her voice was gentle but alive with passion, despite her age._

"_Many many years ago, people lived in a world bathed in the warmth of light. Everyone loved the light, but eventually people began to fight over it. They wanted to keep the light for themselves, and darkness was born in their hearts. The darkness spread, swallowing the world and many hearts. It covered everything and the world disappeared, but small fragments of light survived…in the hearts of children. With these fragments of light, the children rebuilt the lost world. It is the world we live in now. But the true light sleeps deep within the darkness. That is why the worlds are still scattered. But someday a door to the innermost darkness will open and the true light will return. So listen, child. Even in the deepest darkness…there will always be a light to guide you." _

There was another golden flash and Sora was back in his seat next to Krillin. He looked around for the source of Kairi's voice and the cause of his…vision, but it was just the three of them in the ship, no one else. Before he could make sense of it, he was interrupted by a violent shaking. The ship was under attack. Krillin raised his staff and the ship was encased in a protective bubble of magic. The Heartless ships' fire bounced of the protective bubble hitting a few of them and Gohan blasted the rest of them into fragments with the ship's beam cannons. Finally a world came into view. Its surface was mostly rocky and the northern half seemed to be frozen. As Gohan took the ship down into the world, they noticed a colossal castle surrounded by a sea of ice. Krillin spied a large crevasse about three miles away from the castle and instructed Gohan to take the ship down.

When they got out of the ship the chilly air took Sora by surprise. He hugged himself and marveled at the strange sights surrounding him. Water was sliding flawlessly up the crevasse walls, when it should have been falling. There were floating platforms of ice that lead halfway up the crevasse but they would have to climb the rest of the way. As they leapt from platform to platform they reached the halfway point and Sora glimpsed the castle's high towers.

"_I know that place…"_ he thought.

He could not explain it but there was a feeling of nostalgia that he could not dismiss. Somehow, his heart was familiar with that castle. As he scaled the crevasse wall with Krillin and Gohan, he did not take his eyes of the castle which was slowly coming into view. He had never been to this world before, so why did it seem so familiar? His contemplations were interrupted by the sound of swords clashing and he hastened his accent. He lost his grip for a moment, but Gohan reached down, grabbed him, and pulled him up. Sora got a better grip on the wall and they continued their climb until they finally got out of the crevasse. Sora gasped at what he saw when he got to his feet. It was Riku! He was crossing blades with another boy. The boy had dark hair with a blue sheen. He wore a blue uniform under black and white armor and a black cape with red lining. He made a quick vertical several slash at Riku, but Riku was surprisingly agile. He leapt back, launched himself forward, and made a clean cut in the older boy's side. The boy cried out and fell to the ground, clutching his side.

"Stop!" Sora shouted and Riku turned around, finally noticing him. He seemed to take no notice of Krillin or Gohan.

"About time you got here." He said. The contempt in his voice was like a spike in Sora's heart. "We've always been rivals haven't we? I've always pushed you, tried to teach you, but it ends here. There can only be one Keyblade master.

"What are you saying?" Sora demanded.

"Let the Keyblade choose…its true master!"

On Riku's command, the Keyblade appeared in his left hand. Sora held out his right hand but could not summon it.

"He was right…" Riku whispered, staring at the Keyblade. He then turned back to Sora. "You don't have what it takes to save Kairi, Sora! Only I can open the secret door and change the world!"

Sora stared in disbelief as Riku turned his back to him and walked slowly toward a round, green and gold stone platform. Without thinking, he rushed toward Riku, desperate to stop him, but Riku whirled around and struck him hard in the side of the head with the Keyblade. Sora fell back and slid to the mouth of the crevasse, nearly falling back in.

"Sora!" Gohan gasped as he rushed over to him.

"Gohan," Krillin said gravely, "C'mon, we have to remember our mission."

"But…"

"Gohan, there isn't time."

Gohan stared down at Sora for a moment and reluctantly followed Krillin. The two of them joined Riku on the platform. It carried them off the ground and began pulling itself toward the castle on a glowing thread of energy. Warm tears poured from Sora's eyes and he fought the urge to sob as he saw the other boy getting slowly to his feet, clutching his side. Without giving a thought to his own well-being, Sora rushed over to the older boy and took out his only potion.

"Here, drink." He breathed, tipping the bottle into the older boy's mouth. The boy slurped the potion down and the cut in his side vanished, though the side of his tunic was still sliced open and had a scarlet stain in. The boy's strength must have returned because he quickly stood, picked up his sword, and sheathed it.

"Why did you come here?" Sora inquired and the boy answered, "I came to rescue someone very important to me."

"I'm Sora. Who are you?"

The boy seemed reluctant to answer at first but he introduced himself as "Prince Endymion."

"Prince…so the person you're looking for must be a princess!" Sora concluded and the prince replied "Yes." Then he turned and took off across the ice toward the castle and Sora hurried along beside him.

The two of had run for two miles and the platform carrying Riku, Krillin, and Gohan was almost at the castle when they met their first Heartless threat; two magenta dragon-like Heartless swooped down from the sky and nearly tore Sora's head off with their talons. Prince Endymion swung his sword and beheaded the first one. When the second one grabbed Sora with its talons, Endymion thrust his sword into its back and both of the beasts faded from existence.

"You should turn back." Endymion advised. "I can't have you slowing me down."

"I came here to rescue someone important to me too." Sora declared. "I have to get into that castle!"

Endymion gazed into Sora's eyes with dawning understanding.

"Let's go." He said stoically.

After running for another mile, they reached the base of the castle, but the only visible entrance was on a ledge high above them.

"There!" Endymion said, pointing to another stone platform settled against the ledge. "There must be a way to make it come down!"

Sora found himself drawn to a blue diamond-shaped crystal atop a stone pedestal in front of him. As he touched the crystal, it lit up pink and the platform quickly descended, so they hopped on and it rose back up to the ledge. As they rushed toward the enormous doors, another Heartless appeared and confronted them. It was big, hulking, and covered in blue armor. It was armed with a massive shield that had a ferocious three-eyed black dog's head attached to it. The Heartless pointed its dog-head shield at Endymion, the dog head opened its toothy mouth and sent a spray of ice crystals, which Endymion blocked with his blade. He leaped over the Heartless' head, sliced its stubby little legs off, and then stabbed it through the back, ending its existence. Once the Heartless was felled, they began pushing on the front doors. To Sora's surprise, they were not locked. Riku probably did not expect them to make it here. They managed to push them open far enough to squeeze through but the doors quickly slammed shut behind them. They made their way through the pitch-black corridor with their arms outstretched until they felt a pair of wooden doors. They pushed them open with ease and found themselves in the castle's entrance hall. It was a round hall. The floor was covered in a soft blue carpet; there was a beautifully decorated fountain between a pair of curved staircases which led to the upper level and there was a balcony high above. As Sora stepped forward, he heard Endymion cry "Serenity!" He whirled around and saw Endymion rush back into the shadows of the corridor and the doors slammed shut behind him.

"You should have stayed away!" he heard Riku call from behind him. He turned back around to see Riku storming down the staircase as if he owned this place.

"I won't leave without Kairi!" Sora said defiantly.

"The darkness will take you!" Riku warned.

"You're wrong, Riku." Sora declared, "The darkness can take my body, but it can't touch my heart." He turned his attention to Krillin and Gohan watching them on the upper level, looking both surprised and pleased to see him.

"My heart will stay with my friends, it'll never die!"

"Really?" Riku challenged, "We'll see about that!"

He raised his left hand, conjured a searing ball of blue flame, and hurled it straight at Sora. Sora shut his eyes and held out his hands in a desperate attempt to protect himself. When the impact did not come, he opened his eyes and saw the Keyblade in his outstretched hands. It felt good to hold its warm metal hilt again. Riku's blue-green eyes widened in shock, he stared in confusion for a few moments and summoned his wing-shaped sword into his left hand. Every duel Sora had with Riku over the years must have been to prepare him for this one, because this time, Sora had a strong feeling he would be victorious.

* * *

Riku dashed toward Sora, determined to end this fight before it began, but Sora parried his strike with surprising strength and timing. He made several slashes and stabs but Sora evaded them all and he only managed to nick Sora's arm. He continued his assault, never taking his eyes off his opponent as he was taught, but Sora leapt and rolled out of his reach. He was trying to wear Riku down, just as Riku had often done to him, which only added to Riku's frustration. Riku used a highly disciplined fighting style meant to counter some of the more aggressive styles. It was a one-handed style that consisted mainly of thrusts and horizontal slashes. It encouraged deftness and precision over blind aggression and brute force, which allowed Riku to attack and counter without over exerting himself. This always gave him an advantage over Sora with his clumsiness or Tidus with his silly acrobatics. But Sora was suddenly fighting with grace and focus that Riku had never seen in him before. How could he have improved so much since their last duel?

* * *

It was Sora's turn to go on the offensive. He had fought and lost to Riku enough times to know what he was capable of, but Riku had no idea what Sora was capable of. Riku fought with the same style he had always used and Sora knew every variation of every precise move Riku could use against him now. But Sora had learned a lot from all of the great swordsmen he had fought alongside of. He had learned to listen to his subconscious so his opponents would have a harder time predicting his moves. When Riku made a stab at him, he leapt back and hurled the Keyblade at him, it struck him in the chest and he staggered back. He summoned the Keyblade back into his hand, dashed forward, and swung diagonally. Riku blocked it, just in time. He spun around on one foot and swung to the right, knocking Riku's sword from his hand. Finally he hurled himself forward, using his whole body as a weapon as he had seen Inuyasha do and knocked Riku into the fountain. After a few moments, Riku slowly got out, opened a black hole and stepped through it. The black hole vanished before Sora could run in after him. Krillin and Gohan came down to join him.

"I knew you could do it." Gohan said

"We're sorry we left you like that." Krillin added, scratching his head.

Truthfully, Sora was still upset with them for leaving him but he told them he forgave them. The wooden door opened and Endymion strode in to join them, looking quite anxious.

"This is Prince Endymion." Sora announced "He's looking for someone important too…and he helped me get in here!"

Krillin and Gohan introduced themselves and thanked Endymion for helping Sora. Endymion still looked troubled but managed a smile.

* * *

Riku sat alone in the castle chapel, unable to fathom why he had lost the Keyblade and the fight.

"It's not fair…" he muttered to himself. "It was supposed to be mine."

"Know this…" said another voice.

Riku looked up and gasped at the strange cloaked apparition standing before him. It had a dark blue aura around it…almost black. Its voice was a soft rumble that sounded like distant thunder.

"The heart that is strongest will win the Keyblade in the end." The apparition declared.

"Wha…You're saying his heart's stronger than mine?" Riku demanded, giving no thought as to who or what this apparition was.

"It was." The apparition said. "However you can become stronger. You showed no fear in stepping into the darkness. Plunge deeper into the darkness and your heart will become stronger."

"How?" Riku wondered.

"Let your heart, your being become darkness itself."

Before Riku could protest, the apparition glided into him and vanished. Darkness obscured his vision and his consciousness quickly faded.


	16. The Dead Zone

The Seeker of Darkness walked into the grand hall with the boy's body. It had deteriorated over the years but it was still intact and six of the Princesses of Heart were lined up as they should be. As he reached the upper level, he found Garlic Junior standing before the keyhole watching intently, and the seventh Princess of Heart was lying on the floor behind him.

"I see the pathway has emerged at last." He said with the boy's voice.

"Yes, the keyhole to darkness." Garlic Junior confirmed.

"Unlock it and the Heartless will overrun this world."

Garlic Junior cackled loudly.

"And I will use their power to rule this and every other world!"

The Seeker of Darkness reached out with his power and seized the hearts of the first six captive princesses. He pulled them toward him, connected them all, and wrapped them in darkness, forming a Keyblade. The power to seize and manipulate hearts was somehow familiar to him, as was the ability to wield a Keyblade, though he was not sure why. Garlic Junior gasped at the Keyblade he forged.

"A Keyblade! But…how…?"

"I require the final princess' heart to complete the keyhole."

Garlic Junior stood silent for a moment. Something seemed new about Riku.

"I have done all that I can to locate it…I sense…Sora and his companions. I will deal with them, you watch the princesses and the keyhole!"

The Seeker of Darkness watched apathetically as Garlic Junior strode out of the grand hall. He predicted Garlic Junior would not defeat the Keyblade wielder.

* * *

As Sora lead his allies through the castle they were opposed by many more Heartless; Shadows, Soldiers, and wizard-like Heartless that wielded staffs and casted spells. Krillin created another of his protective bubbles and the Wizards' spells bounced off of it and hit them instead. Finally they made it into the castle's chapel and a pale-skinned dwarf with a large bald head and pointy ears was waiting for them. He was dressed in a dark blue robe with a long off-white cloak.

"Sora…and friends," he rasped, "You came all this way for nothing!"

"What do you mean?" Sora demanded.

"After I've dealt with all of you, I will complete the keyhole. And I will finally fulfill my father's dream!"

"I'm not gonna let that happen!" Sora swore. "Not after coming this far!"

Garlic Junior's smile quickly turned into a murderous glare and he rose into the air.

"You have been a thorn in my side for too long…now die!"

Without warning, he shot a pair of white-hot beams from his eyes, which Sora barely evaded by diving to the right. While he was on the ground, Garlic Junior hurled a ball of energy at him, which Gohan blocked with his shield. Garlic Junior floated around the chapel hurling energy balls, which Endymion batted away with his sword, he knocked one right back at Garlic Junior, knocking him into a wall.

"Heartless, come out!" Garlic Junior shrieked. Two black holes opened in the walls and a dozen Shadows poured out of each one. While Sora's allies struggled with the Shadows, he focused on Garlic Junior, leaping into the air to strike him, but Garlic Junior was too quick for him. He conjured a black ball of energy with green bolts twisting around it and hurled it at Sora. Sora whacked the dark orb back at Garlic Junior, but he dropped below, zoomed forward and rammed into Sora's stomach with his bulbous head and then disappeared into a black portal.

Garlic Junior rushed out of the portal into the castle's courtyard. There was much more room for him to move around out here so he could deal with those pests with ease. To his surprise another portal opened up and Riku stepped through just as Sora and his allies entered through Garlic Junior's portal.

Sora rushed into the castle's courtyard with his friends close behind him. Garlic Junior was waiting for them as he expected but Riku was with him. What really took Sora by surprise was Riku's appearance. He was wearing a ribbed black bodysuit with blue highlights and a Heartless emblem on the chest. He was also carrying what looked like a Keyblade, it had a long black shaft with a sharp tip, a red flame-shaped hand guard, and no keychain.

"Riku…is that a Keyblade?"

Riku said nothing but merely smiled. As the wicked grin spread across Riku's face, Sora felt a chill rush through his body. The look in Riku's eyes was not his own. Before Sora could think anymore on this, however, he heard Kairi's voice echo again through his head. Sora opened his eyes and saw the shore of his home world at night.

_"Hey. I'm gonna head back now"_

_A small child's voice caused Sora to go rigid. Before he turned to see who the voice came from, he closed his eyes tight. This could not be real! Opening them again, he stood on the island's shore as the sun set, looking into the eyes of a young woman Sora did not fully recognize, but still thought seemed familiar. Blinking again, he saw the shore bathed in the noon sun and a little boy with white hair playing with a little girl with shimmering red locks, both of them turning to him._

_"Hey Sora! You coming?" the boy asked. Sora closed his eyes tight and fell to his knees. It was too much for him to take._

"You, boy!" sneered Garlic Junior. Sora's eyes shot open, miniscule tears falling as he looked upon the glowering forms of Garlic Junior and Riku. "You obviously are skilled and talented to not only come before me, but to pose such a fine challenge as well." he smirked "but I think your journey is about to reach it's close."

"Garlic Junior," Riku began calmly, his voice echoing as if he were not the only one speaking. "One story will indeed come to a close." As the imp looked bewildered to his ward, Riku stepped forth and held his Keyblade high. "To answer your question…" he went on slowly "…yes, this is indeed a Keyblade, but not like the one you wield." His eyes narrowing, Riku's smile widened, almost as if he were enjoying this moment. "This one can unlock one's heart, and…" he sneered, turning slightly. "Unleash what they hold within." At this, Sora's jaw dropped. What did that mean? "For example…" Riku echoed on as he faced his supposed master. He then thrust his black weapon into Garlic Junior's heart.

"Open your heart! Surrender it to the darkness! Become Darkness itself!"

Garlic Junior gasped and groaned as Riku pulled the blade out of him and vanished. His skin turned a dark green and his eyes burned crimson. His cloak and robe were torn off as his muscles pumped up and he grew ten feet before their eyes. A glowing green aura enveloped him; it started out quite bright but quickly turned black and opaque.

"You'll all **Dieeee!**" he roared. An enormous black hole opened in the dim, red evening sky above and began sucking enormous chunks from the castle upward. Sora grabbed onto some bricks as he was lifted off the ground and his friends dropped to the ground and hung onto the tile.

"There is no escape!" Garlic Junior shrieked. "You will all be sucked into the _Dead Zone _I've created!"

As Sora clung to the wall, he knew his only hope was to knock Garlic Junior into the Dead Zone, but he himself would be sucked in if he let go of the wall. He thought of using his summon gems but he could not risk losing them to the dead zone. He began shooting lightning bolts from his Keyblade but Garlic Junior barely seemed to notice. Suddenly the blade became shrouded in sparks and the phrase, _Thunder Raid _popped into his mind.

"Thunder Raid!" he cried and he flung the sparking keyblade at Garlic Junior's tiny legs. He was lifted a few inches from the ground but reached down with his massive arms and dug his claws into the tile. He turned to snarl at Sora but then noticed Sora's friends hanging on for their lives and began clawing his way toward them with a vengeful grin.

"No!"

Without giving a thought to his own safety, Sora released his grip on the wall and charged toward Garlic Junior, his heart burning with righteous anger.

Just as Garlic Junior reached his prey, he heard an enraged cry from the Keyblade wielder. He turned his head and gasped at the sight of him. He was sprinting across the courtyard with a brilliant golden glow around him.

"_How can he be standing?" _He wondered. "_He's definitely no ordinary kid!"_

Sora was angry, angrier than he had been in some time. He never wanted to see Garlic Junior's repulsive features again. He felt the need to protect his vulnerable friends, but he also felt a need to punish evil, to strike it with all his might. The phrase _Ars Arcanum _popped into his mind, he hurled himself forward, swung from left to right, striking Garlic Junior's head twice. He then spun in the air, building speed and brought his blade down on his head once more. That did it! Garlic Junior lost his grip on the tile and went flying upward, shrieking in terror and rage. He spiraled and tumbled for a few seconds, then disappeared completely into his own Dead Zone. The gaping hole closed and the ominous red sky overhead shattered to reveal a soothing orange-pink evening sky.

"I don't think we'll be seeing him again." Krillin said, getting to his feet.

"I hope he stays in there for eternity." Endymion added, darkly.

Sora could only think of Riku now. He was not himself, the way he talked was so sinister, it was not at all like the boy he had known for twelve years.


	17. Seeker of Darkness

Sora and his friends made their way back into the chapel and Endymion pointed out a corridor that they had not noticed before. It was the only place left to go; it had to be where Riku and Kairi were. Once again, Sora was going to have to fight his oldest friend, but at least now he had three friends to back him up. His arm trembled as he grasped the Keyblade's hilt. The party made its way across a ledge overlooking the castle's lift shop, pushed open a large pair of stone doors and entered a hall that may have once been a throne room. Its design was similar to the entrance hall with a pair of staircases leading to another floor above. It was beautiful despite the worn and crumbling walls, perhaps the wear and tear even added to its beauty. Six glass chambers were lined along the walls and inside were Chihiro, Akane, Kagome, and three other girls Sora did not recognize. One wore a subtle blue dress and had brown hair with braided pigtails; another had shorter, lighter brown hair and wore a frilly red and white dress with bloused sleeves, a bow around her neck, and a big, puffy cap. The last girl was tall and blond with long pigtails and a white gown, this girl immediately caught Endymion's attention.

"Serenity!" he gasped as he pried the chamber open and felt her chest.

"She has no heartbeat." He breathed.

"Neither does this one." Krillin said, as he placed his hand on Chihiro's chest.

Sora rushed up the stairs and found Kairi lying motionless on the floor. He rushed over to her and shook her but her eyes stared lifelessly into space.

"**She has lost her heart." **said a familiar voice.

Sora looked up, trembling and saw Riku staring down at him. His once blue-green eyes were now yellow-orange and his voice had changed, it was now a deep and ominous rumble. Sora had heard that voice before, it belonged to the cloaked stranger he met in the cave on his island.

"It's…it's you…" he said, shaking with fear and confusion.

The stranger gestured toward an intricate heart shaped frame in the wall behind him.

"**The keyhole cannot be completed until the last Princess of Heart is revived."**

"Princess…" Sora repeated, "Kairi's a princess?"

"**Yes."** The stranger confirmed. **"But without her heart, the keyhole will remain incomplete."**

Whoever this stranger was, Sora's heart told him he could not trust him.

"Let Riku go!" he demanded. "Get out of his heart."

"**But first, you must return the princess' heart."** The stranger insisted, pointing his dark Keyblade at Sora's heart. Sora felt a white-hot flame in his chest and fell back.

"**The princess' heart is responding. It has been there all along!" **the stranger declared.

"Kai…Kairi's…inside me?" Sora gasped.

"**I know all that there is to know.**" The stranger proclaimed.

"Tell me, who are you?" Sora breathed.

"**I am Ansem, seeker of Darkness.**"

Ansem…that was the name of the scientist Yuffie and Leon had told him about, the one who was studying the Heartless! Ansem stepped forward in Riku's body and raised his dark Keyblade.

"**I shall release you now, princess. Complete the keyhole with your power!"**

Sora raised his own Keyblade to defend his heart (and Kairi's) just in time.

"I don't care who you are, you're not getting Kairi's Heart!" He swore as he pushed Ansem back.

Ansem raised Riku's hand and hurled three searing blue fire balls at once, which Sora swatted away. He then began hammering away at Ansem, who parried every blow.

"**Stop this now!" **he commanded. **"The keyhole must be complete!"**

Roaring angrily, he began to force Sora back and landed a kick in his face, sending the young Key bearer stumbling back.

"**You'd be wise to know your limits, boy."** growled the dark warrior. With that, he began to glow a dark purple and began to stride over to Sora. Wiping a small spot of blood from his lip, Sora rose and charged at his foe… only to run right through him. Turning quickly, he saw Ansem slowly rising into the air, the room around them growing darker and darker until it was almost black as pitch. Before he could think about what was happening, Ansem began to bolt for him at blinding speed, covered in a vibrant shower of dark energy. As he crashed and plowed into Sora, he felt an unbearable numbness shoot through his body. This truly was the power of darkness. For a moment, Sora's mind betrayed him. He knelt to the ground, ready for Ansem to finish him, when he heard a sweet voice call out "Sora!" Sora's eyes flew open and he somersaulted back, just as Ansem shot into the floor, turning it into a melting black mass followed by a burst of purple and black flame. Landing quickly, Sora charged once more, his vigor and drive fully restored. But Ansem stuck his dark Keyblade in the ground and vanished, with Riku's body. Forcing himself not to think about it, Sora turned back to Kairi as Krillin, Gohan, and Endymion came up to join him. She was all that mattered right now, she needed her heart back, and Sora could think of only one way to get it out of him. He pulled Ansem's dark Keyblade out of the floor, held its tip to his chest, and prepared himself for the pain he was about to endure.

"Sora!" Krillin gasped.

Sora ignored the protests from his friends and plunged the arcane weapon into his chest. To his surprise, he felt no pain, only numbness and heaviness. No blood came out of him, only streams of light and darkness. His vision began to darken as he pulled the dark Keyblade out of him, it dissolved into black vapor and six shining gold hearts appeared, they hovered over him for a moment and raced back to reunite with their bodies.

_They're free…_

That was the last thought Sora formed before the darkness took him.


	18. Dark Depths

"Sora!"

That was the first thing that came to Kairi's mind when she was back in her body. She sprang to her feet and saw him sinking into a black pool. She rushed over to the pool and reached in, desperate to pull Sora out.

"_I won't let you die!" _she screamed in her head, but what she pulled out of the pool of darkness was just a tiny Shadow.

"Sora…" she breathed. A tear slid down her cheek as the Shadow opened its beady yellow eyes. At that moment, at least a dozen more of the things appeared. She held the Shadow that was once Sora close to her heart.

"Now I'll protect you." She whispered. One of Sora's friends cried her name as several of the Shadows leapt toward her and began clawing away at her. She rolled over and looked to Sora's two friends but they were being overwhelmed by a swarm of Shadows too. Just when she was certain that she would die protecting her dearest friend, there was a flash of white light and she felt the weight of the Shadows being lifted off her. When she opened her eyes, she was in the arms of Sora…the real Sora! For a few moments, the both of them were at a loss for words.

"I…I heard you…" Sora managed to say. "Your voice brought me back."

Trembling, Kairi reached out and touched Sora's face.

"It's…really…"

Before she could express her joy, Sora's two friends rushed over to embrace him.

"Buddy, we thought you were gone forever." The short, bald one said.

"I thought so too." Sora confessed.

Kairi wiped the tears from her eyes and got to her feet. Sora was alright. Right now, that was all that mattered.

* * *

Endymion and the captives came to join Sora and his friends. Each girl had reclaimed her heart and had a golden glow around her.

"Are you really all…princesses?" Sora asked, both excited and confused.

The girls all looked at one another and the one called "Serenity" answered: "We are what people call Princesses of Heart. Garlic Junior brought us here because we all have hearts full of light."

"When they are all brought together, this world's keyhole can be revealed." Endymion added. "And the door to darkness can be opened too."

"_Door to Darkness…"_

Sora did not know what they were talking about but he did not like the sound of it.

"Sora, I think you need to seal that keyhole."

Sora turned around to face the heart-shaped frame in the wall. There was a shimmering black veil within it. He reached out to touch the veil and his hand went straight through as though it were fluid, he would have to step through it to get to the keyhole. He turned back around to face his friends, and the rest of the princesses.

"I'll be back soon." He assured them, with a smile.

As he stepped through the veil, he found himself in a void, filled with color. He noticed a stone frame, shaped like the Heartless Emblem and the keyhole was in the center. He walked across the void until he was halfway to the keyhole, but an enormous entity appeared before him, blocking his path. A dragon, covered in a dark grey exoskeleton. It had massive armored wings and a stone crest on its head with two curved horns. As Sora gazed into the dragon's red eyes it became clear to him that it was not a Heartless. It spread its wings, leaned forward, and let out a deafening roar. Sora dropped to one knee and clapped a hand over one ear, the other still clinging to the Keyblade as though it were his very life. Before he could get to his feet, the dragon spewed a ball of azure fire. There was no time to dodge, so Sora held his Keyblade out and began pushing against the fire ball as it came close to him. A few of his muscles were pulled but he managed to push it back at the dragon, it exploded on impact but the dragon was not even phased.

"Need…seal…keyhole…not gonna…stop me…" Sora panted.

As the dragon stared down at Sora, he could see something like approval in its red eyes. It slowly faded from his sight, allowing him to get to the keyhole. He pointed the Keyblade and grasped his upper arm to stop it from trembling. The white beam shot into the keyhole, he held it in place for a few seconds until he heard the tell-tale click that told him the keyhole was sealed. He dismissed the Keyblade and dragged himself back to the entrance. He stumbled through the veil and into Kairi's arms.

"Sora, you did it."

Sora looked up and saw Leon, Yuffie, Aerith, and Cid looking quite proud of him.

"Our home world is safe from the Heartless now. Thank you." Aerith said wiping a tear from her cheek.

* * *

_Anyone want to guess what the keyhole's guardian was? I'll give you a hint, it's one of Final Fantasy's most powerful and iconic beasts._


	19. Ansem's Report

Sora sat against a wall in the castle's courtyard reading a book he had taken from the library. It was a poem called "LOVELESS" and it had caught his eye out of the hundreds of books in the library. Literature was never one of Sora's strong points but the poem seemed to be about three friends in search of something they called "The Gift of the Goddess." Before he could try to make sense of the poem, he glimpsed something unsettling in the corner of his eye. A figure in a black, hooded cloak was standing on a balcony overlooking the courtyard. Sora gazed at the figure for a few moments, dropped the book and ran inside. He found a staircase leading to the balcony and raced up, by the time he reached the balcony though, the black-cloaked figure was gone. Was it Ansem or did he have someone else to worry about now?

"Hey, sora." said Aerith's gentle voice.

He turned around to see her climbing the staircase to meet him.

"We found something in the library that you should see."

"What is it?" Sora asked, more concerned about the figure in black.

"It's Ansem's journal." Aerith said, "Garlic Junior must have found it."

"Oh, okay…thanks." Sora said.

Dismissing the figure in black from his mind, for the moment, Sora rushed down the stairs and then back up to Aerith.

"Um…how do I get there again?" he asked with an awkward grin.

Aerith chuckled and led Sora through the castle's corridors and into the lift shop, where they took a lift down to the library, where Krillin, Gohan, and Leon were waiting for him. Sora took a seat next to Gohan and Krillin opened the journal and began to read:

_Much of my life has been dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge._

_That knowledge has guarded this world well. Not a soul doubts that._

_I am blessed with people's smiles and respect. But though I am called a sage, there are things I do not understand._

_I believe darkness sleeps in every heart, no matter how pure. Given the chance, the smallest drop can spread and swallow the heart. I have witnessed it many times._

_Darkness...Darkness of the heart. How is it born?_

_How does it come to affect us so?_

_As ruler of this world, I must find the answers. I must find them before the world is lost to those taken by the darkness._

_It is my duty to expose what this darkness really is. I shall conduct the following experiments:_

_Extract the darkness from a person's heart._

_Cultivate darkness in a pure heart._

_Both suppress and amplify the darkness within._

_The experiments caused the test subject's heart to collapse, including those of the most stalwart. How fragile our hearts are! My treatment produced no signs of recovery. I confined those who had completely lost their hearts beneath the castle._

_Sometime later, I went below and was greeted by the strangest sight. Creatures that seemed born of darkness...What are they? Are they truly sentient beings? Could they be the shadows of those who lost their hearts in my experiments?_

_The shadows that crawl beneath the castle... Are they the people who lost their hearts, or incarnations of darkness? Or something entirely beyond my imagination?_

_All my knowledge has provided no answer. One thing I am sure of is that they are entirely devoid of emotion. Perhaps further study will unlock the mysteries of the heart._

_Fortunately, there is no shortage of test samples. They are multiplying underground even as I write this report. They still need a name. Those who lack hearts... I will call them the Heartless._

_The Heartless appear in groups, and are multiplying rapidly. I've provided them both living and nonliving samples. They've responded only to the living. They seem to multiply after absorbing something from the living creatures. Their prey vanishes without a trace._

_I believe the Heartless are taking hearts. They are born from those who've lost their hearts, and thrive on hearts seized from others. The hearts taken by the Heartless become Heartless themselves._

_Though I lack proof, I am confident in this hypothesis. I must also study their behavioral principles. Though they lack emotions, they do seem to have some intelligence. How to communicate with them?_

_It's just occurred to me: Could they be the darkness in people's hearts?_

_To study the Heartless behavior, I picked one out for observation. It wiggled its antennae and, as if sensing a target, headed deep into the castle. In the deepest part of the castle, its antennae began vibrating, as if searching for something. Suddenly, a strange door appeared. I'd never known of its existence._

_It had a large keyhole, but didn't seem to be locked. So I opened the door. What I saw on the other side mystified me. What was that powerful mass of energy? That night I observed a great meteor shower in the sky. Could it be related to the door that I have opened?_

_A massive core of energy lay beyond the door sought by the Heartless. It may be the ultimate goal of the Heartless. But what is that energy? I have devised a hypothesis, based upon my observations of the Heartless._

_The Heartless feed on other's hearts, and they yearn for that energy core. That thing beyond the door must be a heart, too-the heart of this world. There is no proof, but, having felt that immense energy, I am certain. That was the heart of the world._

_The Heartless are trying to take hearts not only from all living creatures, but from the planet itself. But what do they mean to do with the heart of the world?_

_I am studying material from the meteors that rained down that fateful night. What a find! The material is foreign to our world. It is elastic to the touch, and when two pieces are combined, they bond easily. None of the records even mention such a substance._

_Was it introduced to this world when I opened the door? I wonder how many other such materials drift through the atmosphere of this tiny world... I wish I could soar off and find out! Could there be uncharted worlds up there? My curiosity never ceases to grow._

_But I should stop speaking of such unrealistic dreams. For now, there is no way to venture outside this world. My people and I are all but prisoners of this tiny place._

_There is no doubt that the Heartless are deeply connected to the people's hearts. Further study may unravel both their motivations and the mysteries shrouding the heart._

_As a start, I have built a device that artificially creates Heartless. By recreating the conditions that spawn the Heartless naturally, I should be able to produce them artificially. This device is the culmination of all my research thus far. The machine's test run successfully created a Heartless._

_This may be a step toward creating a heart from nothing. The artificially and naturally created Heartless showed nearly identical traits. But the two types remain distinct for the purpose of the experiment. So, I will mark the ones that are created artificially._

_Simply astonishing! Today I had a guest from another world. He is a king, and his vessel is built of the material that composed the meteors. He called the pieces "gummi blocks". It seemed that my opening the door has opened a path to interworld travel._

_We talked for countless hours, but one story in particular caught my interest: that of a key called the "Keyblade". The Keyblade is said to hold phenomenal power._

_One legend says its wielder saved the world, while another says that he wrought chaos and ruin upon it. I must know what this Keyblade is. A key opens doors. It must be connected to the door I have opened._

_Just as people have hearts, so do worlds. The same can be said of stars in the night sky. And deep within each world lies a door to its heart. The Heartless desire those hearts. Born out of darkness in people's hearts, they seek to return to a greater heart._

_Yes that's it. The Heartless come from people's hearts, as does the darkness. Is the core of the world's heart the world of the Heartless? I will pursue the answer there and become all knowing._

_My path is set. I shall seek out the wielder of the Keyblade, and the princesses. My body is too frail for such a journey, but I must do this. I will cast it off and plunge into the depths of darkness._

"Some sage he turned out to be." Leon muttered, sarcastically. "All this suffering, and for what?"

This was a lot to take in but Sora was certain of one thing: Ansem had to be stopped.

"Anyone who is willing to put people in danger to get what he wants has to be stopped." Gohan added. "Even if it's unlimited power and knowledge."

"Yeah, we'll find Ansem…and when we do, we'll stop him and get back all the worlds he and the Heartless stole!" Sora declared.

"Good." Leon said, approvingly. "But no one knows what will happen when the worlds are restored. We may never see each other again. Can you live with that?"

Sora took a few moments to consider it, he thought of his island, his family, and all the people in Traverse Town who had lost their homes, then he solemnly replied:

"I'll do whatever it takes to get my home back. Whatever it takes to make things the way they're supposed to be."

"Good answer." Leon said proudly.


	20. End of the World

Sora had met with Kairi in the entrance hall. She had gotten to know the two remaining princesses and eagerly introduced him to them. The girl in the simple blue dress with the braided brown pigtails was named Sheeta Laputa. She had come from a legendary kingdom known as "Laputa." She held up a tiny glowing stone she wore around her neck and explained that it was the key to unlocking Laputa's great power. The girl in the frilly red and white dress was Sakura Kinomoto. Sakura was well versed in magical arts and had the ability to trap monsters inside cards. Sora had also met Akane, who he instantly recognized by her cobalt blue hair.

"You're a lot nicer than Ranma made it sound like." He had commented.

Akane responded to this with a rather annoyed look.

"And just what did he say about me?" she demanded.

Sora chuckled nervously and replied, "Well he said you were a bit of a tomboy."

Each girl had lost her home world to the darkness and Sora promised them he would get them back. They all thanked him and went to join their peers, but Kairi stayed behind with Sora.

"Do you think our lives will ever be the same?" she asked him. "Riku's…lost in the dark."

"So was I." Sora reminded her. "I started forgetting who I was, what mattered to me, but your voice brought me back. So, maybe I can bring Riku back. I've got to try."

Kairi took Sora's Hand and placed the wayfinder she made from Thalassa shells in it.

"It will help you find your way back to me." She insisted.

Sora tucked the wayfinder safely into his jacket pocket.

"I'll bring it back to you, I promise."

At that moment, the Keyblade appeared in Sora's hand, but it had taken a new form. It had two shafts which ended in a heart shape. It had a colorful flower-shaped tooth, a hand-guard shaped like a pair of angel wings, and the keychain looked like a miniature wayfinder. Sora never imagined a weapon could be so beautiful, the name _Oathkeeper _instantly came to mind.

Kairi took Sora's hand in hers and said, "Wherever you go, I'm always with you."

Krillin, Gohan, and the others all entered the hall.

"Time to go, Sora." Krillin advised.

"I can feel the dark forces growing, far from here." Princess Serenity warned.

"We'll take the Gummiship and deal with them once and for all." Gohan assured her.

As Sora, Krillin, and Gohan got into the Gummiship, Aerith and Leon, came to see them off.

"We may never see you again, but we won't forget you." Leon avowed.

"No matter how far apart we are our hearts will bring us together." Aerith added.

"We know." Krillin said.

"And we'll remember you too." Sora added.

More than enough farewells had been said. Gohan started the engines and the three heroes blasted into the sky and in mere moments, Hollow Bastion was far behind them.

As the Gummiship sped further away from the known worlds, space went from the calming deep blue Sora was comfortable with, to absolute blackness. They didn't even have a single star to light their way, but Sora could also feel a dark force growing more powerful in the direction they were heading. After hours of speeding through the blackness, Krillin lit the ship with his staff and checked the fuel gauge.

"We're out of fuel." He said, "We're just gonna have to drift."

They drifted for at least another hour through utter blackness until a purple glow came into view. It was a pulsating purple nebula, and they were drifting right into it. Krillin used his magic to take control of the ship and slow its descent. They descended through the nebula and discovered land beneath it. Krillin made a relatively soft landing on a ridge. When they got out Sora gasped and hugged himself. The air was freezing, twice as cold as Hollow Bastion. The air was also very still, there was not even the faintest breeze. They strode across the moist, rocky ground; the gravity was stronger than Sora was used to. As they hastened their strides they came to a small gorge filled with glistening frost. As soon as they entered they were confronted by a sea Shadows. Sora summoned the Oathkeeper, leapt into action, and hacked his way through them while Krillin blasted more of them away with lightning. As they neared the end of the gorge, a Darkball appeared and zoomed toward them.

"They explode!" Sora warned.

Krillin encased them in a magical sphere just as the Darkball burst into a shower of dark purple flames. When the flames cleared, Krillin let the barrier down and they made their way up a steep slope and out of the gorge. As they made their way across some relatively smooth, rocky land, they were opposed by three more Darkballs. Krillin sent three lightning bolts from his staff and blew them to bits before they got too close.

"What…is this place" Sora wondered."

"It must be what's left of worlds taken by the Heartless." Krillin concluded. "The worlds should all be restored once we beat Ansem."

"But what will happen to this place…and to us?"

"Well, this is a heartless world so maybe it'll just disappear." Gohan suggested. "But our hearts shouldn't go anywhere."

After hours of walking they came to a large portal of light and stopped to examine it.

"It looks safe enough." Krillin commented.

"Light is always safe…isn't it?" Sora wondered.

Unable to hesitate any longer, the stepped through the shining portal and the next thing they knew, they were on top of a deep canyon. The walls seem to be made of gummi, mostly dull blue and purple, with some yellow, red, and green patches here and there. Sora felt much lighter here, so he jumped onto a small cliff below and landed softly, the gravity was weak here. He continued jumping down from rock to rock and allowed himself to drop slowly through the canyon, followed closely by Krillin and Gohan. When they reached the bottom, they found another shining portal in the ground. Without hesitation, they stood on it and allowed themselves to sink into it.

Moments later, they found themselves atop a very large pillar-like structure in the middle of a rocky wasteland. The pillar was a deep purple and had craggy edges. In the center was a column of violet flames. Sora looked into the flames and saw a hazy image of the third district of Traverse town. He touched the column and felt no pain, so he stuck his head inside and saw the third district as though he were there. His mind was swimming with questions now. Was this really part of Traverse Town? Had this one area been taken by the Heartless or was it just an illusion?

He pulled his head out of the flame column and went to the edge of the pillar where a tiny orb of light caught his eye. He touched the orb and his whole body vanished. He began speeding forward and landed on another pillar identical to the first. He looked down and saw that he was in his body again. Krillin and Gohan had joined him moments later. Sora looked into this column's flame pillar and saw the Bathouse inside. He touched the orb at the edge of the pillar and was teleported to another, followed by Krillin and Gohan.

They kept warping from pillar to pillar and in each one, Sora could see an image of a world he had been to: Nerima, Feudal Japan, Dark Japan, the Cerulean World, and finally D's world. They warped to one last pillar with a geyser of orange flames in the center. They nervously stepped in and when they emerged, they found themselves in a dark hall. At the end of the hall was a pair of doors with the Heartless emblem on them. They tread down the hall and Sora swung the doors opened with the Oathkeeper ready. What they found inside was a dimly lit room with a large machine inside.

The machine consisted of a large glass dome with two sets of metal pipes running into it; the pipes were pumping what looked like water and color into the dome. There was purple, green, blue, orange, and yellow. They all mixed to form black, the absence of color. There were five metal pods connected to the dome, each bearing the Heartless emblem on it. Gohan moved to a console in front of the machine and pressed a button. What came next took them all by surprise; it was a recording of Ansem's voice reciting a cryptic message:

"_Ones born of the heart and darkness, devoid of hearts, ravage all worlds and bring desolation. Seize all hearts and consummate the great heart. All hearts to be one, one heart to encompass all. Realize the destiny: the realm of Kingdom Hearts. The great darkness sealed within the great heart. Progeny of darkness, come back to the eternal darkness. For the heart of light shall unseal the path. Seven hearts, one keyhole, one key to the door. The door of darkness, tied by two keys. The door to darkness to seal the light. None shall pass but shadows, returning to the darkness. Ones born of the heart and darkness, hunger for every heart until the dark door opens."_

Before they could make sense of this message, a drove of Heartless appeared and surrounded them. They were all as tall as Gohan with muscular black bodies, narrow yellow eyes, bat-like wings on their backs, and long purple prongs on their heads. Each one carried a sword too; they all swopped down at once and began slashing at the heroes. Sora parried two of them in one swing and beheaded them. Gohan disarmed one and shattered its head with his sheild, while Krillin pelted the rest with fire balls and lightning bolts. It was not long before they all retreated into the walls. Sora and his comrades waited for a few moments for the Heartless to come back for more but they did not.

"C'mon." Krillin said. "I don't think there's anything left here."

Sora however was drawn to the machine; it must have been the machine Ansem used to experiment on people's hearts. Just the idea made him angry and he could not resist the urge to destroy it. He began hacking away at the console with the Oathkeeper and jumped back when it started spewing sparks. Krillin sent a lightning bolt into the dome and it too exploded.

"Happy now?" he asked.

"Yeah." Sora replied.

The three of them headed back down the hall and found a black portal in the floor. With nowhere else to go, they grabbed each other's hands and jumped in. They plummeted through blackness for a few minutes until they found an opening below them. They descended into what seemed to be a desert. There was nothing but sand for miles save for some sort of enormous pyramid below them and another pyramid in the blackness above them. As they descended closer to the pyramid in the desert below, a bolt of golden lightning struck it and an enormous creature appeared on top of it. It was over a hundred feet tall, had armored blue skin, an incredibly muscular build, a pair of dragon-like wings, and a crest of long horns on its head.

Without warning, it raised a mighty fist and an azure glow engulfed it. It swung with surprising speed for something so massive, but the heroes were able to fly out of its way. It swung again and this time it created a gust of wind which sent them tumbling through the air. Sora regained his balance, flew toward the creature's face and hurled the Oathkeeper into one of its burning red eyes. The creature let out an earsplitting roar and a hundred lightning bolts emanated from its skin knocking Sora back and knocking Krillin and Gohan to the ground. This was starting to remind Sora of his encounter with the dragon that guarded Hollow Bastion's keyhole. Perhaps this creature was some kind of guardian too. The creature reached out, grabbed Sora and pulled him close to its face. Sora struggled for a moment, looked down at Krillin and Gohan, who were getting slowly to their feet and then looked into the creature's eyes.

"Look! We don't mean you any harm, alright?" Sora said defensively. "Just let us pass!"

The creature stared down at Sora for what might have been a small eternity then released him. Sora floated away from it, in case it decided to attack him again. Finally, the creature faded from sight, allowing Sora to land on top of the pyramid. Krillin and Gohan managed to float up to join him thanks to the virtually non-existent gravity here. There was an opening just large enough for one to squeeze through at a time. Sora went first, followed by Gohan, then Krillin. When they reached the bottom of the pyramid it was nearly pitch-black, So Krillin lit it up with his staff. They found a sarcophagus, a stone receptacle meant for holding the deceased. Sora quickly pushed the lid off, revealing yet another portal of light. They jumped inside, without hesitation and emerged in an underground tunnel. The walls were a mixture of blue and magenta, until they came to what looked like a painting of a forest. Several large tree limbs were protruding from the walls though, so it wasn't just a painting, it was what remained of a real forest that was taken by the Heartless! As they got deeper into the tunnel, they passed what looked like the crumbling ruins of a castle half-buried in the ground. These sights made Sora all the more eager to defeat Ansem. He hurried through the tunnel until he reached the end and found himself in a very spacious chamber. The walls were a subdued purple but the ground was glowing an emerald green.

At the end of the chamber was another opening. As the trio approached it however, a massive purple behemoth appeared before them. It stood on four beefy legs, had a glowing horn on its head, two sharp tusks on its face and the Heartless Emblem on its belly. _Behemoth _was the only fitting name for such a creature. It let out a low growl and lunged forward. Sora and Gohan were agile enough to dive out of its way but Krillin put up a barrier which the Behemoth shattered, knocking him back a few feet. Sora flung the Oathkeeper between the Behemoth's eyes and it flinched. He struck it twice more and it shot a thick golden lightning bolt from its horn. The bolt shot straight toward Sora but Gohan threw himself in front of him and blocked it with his shield. As the Behemoth stomped toward them, Sora soon realized it may be too strong for them to bring down fast enough to stop Ansem. He reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out a summon gem, and tossed it into the air. There was a flash of white light and the little blue and white frog-like alien emerged. It let out a tiny roar and shot a thick yellow beam from its mouth, searing the Behemoth, the frog-creature then retreated back into the gem. Sora caught the gem, drew the Oathkeeper, and hurled it straight into the Behemoth's skull. The Behemoth stumbled and thrashed around before collapsing dead on the ground.

As soon as it faded from existence, three of the pronged, sword-wielding Heartless descended and flew straight toward Sora. Krillin managed to freeze one in midair with blizzard magic and it crashed to the ground. Sora parried strikes from two of them but they were relentless. Gohan grabbed one by the tail and pulled it away from Sora while he kept combating the other. Fighting seemed to come naturally to it, but it had none of the resourcefulness Sora had. He locked blades with it, cried "Fire!" and shot a burst of flame into its face. He then rolled under it and stabbed it in the back. As soon as it was gone though, the one Krillin had frozen burst out of its icy shell and flew toward Sora. Sora held out the Oathkeeper to block its attack but rather than attack with its sword as Sora expected, it plunged the sword into the ground and morphed into a ring of purple fire, which surrounded Sora. Before he knew what to expect next, the ring closed on him, binding and scorching him.

"Help me!" he groaned.

Krillin tried spraying ice crystals but the flames kept burning and began to darken. Sora bit his lip so hard that a trickle of blood slid down his chin. Krillin ran up to Sora and shined a ray of light on him. The dark flames were blown away and he fell to his knees. Gohan handed him a small potionand he gulped it all down. He sprang to his feet with his vitality restored just as three new Heartless appeared. These Heartless were the most peculiar by far; they each had two sets of golden wings, bulbous white heads with three beady yellow eyes, and glassy bell-shaped bodies. They each had emblems on their bodies, so they must have been created artificially. One shot an orb of pale yellow light at Gohan, he blocked it with his shield but it caused a burst of light which blinded him. Another Heartless conjured a small purple whirlwind and sent it speeding toward Krillin, who dove aside and shot a fire ball which shattered its glassy body. The third Heartless extended its wings and began spinning toward Sora in a deadly dance. Sora jumped over it and hurled the Oathkeeper into its soft, bulbous head. Gohan's Heartless tried to skewer him with its wings, but he flipped over it and put his foot through its body. He then grabbed one of its wings, swung it around, and flung it into the wall. Each Heartless flickered for a moment and then vanished.

These Heartless were different from the rest, they used the power of light, so were they created from the darkness in people's hearts or from the light? Sora would never had believed it, had he not seen it himself. Could the power of light really be harmful to people?

"Why would Ansem create Heartless that can use light?" he wondered. "**How** did he do it?"

"He probably made them from people with light hearts." Krillin hypothesized.

"Maybe he made them to fight the other Heartless." Gohan proposed.

The trio waited for a minute to see if any more Heartless appeared but none did.

"I think they're all gone." Krillin decided.

"Yeah, I'm not sensing anything." Gohan added.

They walked to the opening at the end of the chamber and stepped into it. Inside was a smaller chamber. It reminded Sora of the secret cave on his island. He felt safe here. He sat down on the soft, cool ground next to a stone basin with a few inches of clear water in it. Krillin and Gohan sat with him.

"Nowhere left to go…so we'll just have to wait, I guess." said Krillin, with a sigh.

As Sora began to dose off, he thought he heard a familiar voice saying:

_This is the last Haven you'll find._

* * *

Note: Can anyone guess the name of the guardian of the Pyramid? I'll give you a hint, he's one of the most powerful YuGiOh monsters.


	21. The Knight

_Sora wandered across a desolate land under a golden evening sky. He had no idea where he was, how he got here or when. He had an unshakable feeling something was waiting to be found here, but he did not know what. He continued to wander and spied what might have been a graveyard ahead of him. When he reached the area he was mystified to see thousands of Keyblades of all shapes and sizes embedded in the ground. Unable to sense any life in this place, he came to the realization that it was a place where many people had lost their lives. What could have driven so many people to do this to each other? He turned about and stared at the countless Keyblades surrounding him; there were even more of them now than he remembered. He shut his eyes for only a moment or two and opened them to find even more surrounding him! He whirled around several times, fearing he would be lost in an endless sea of abandoned Keyblades. He suddenly became dizzy and fell to his knees. As he shut his eyes he could feel the world turning. He lifted his head and tried to cry out but no sound came out. _

_When he found the courage to open his eyes again, he found that he was no longer in the graveyard of Keyblades. He was on a mesa high above it. He stood and crept the the edge, staring at the thousands of Keyblades in the land below. He could see for miles from up here, he would be able to navigate the graveyard of keyblades now if he could only make it off this mesa. He turned around to search for a safe way down but froze at the sight of a statue of a knight kneeling on the mesa's surface. It had a pronged helmet and clutched a broad, brass Keyblade with a hammer-like tip. Overcome with fascination, he walked over to the statue and touched it. As he gazed at it, he felt his strength and courage returning. Whoever this knight was, he did not give up easily, and neither would Sora._

_He silently thanked the knight and turned to head down the Mesa but as soon as he reached the edge he felt a presence behind him. He whirled around to see that the knight was now standing tall and no longer a statue. Its armor was brown and gold with red plates over the abdomen. It bent its knees slightly and held out its Keyblade in a challenging gesture. Sora did not keep the knight waiting. He dashed forward and made a few slashes but the knight's guard was unbreakable. It was the knight's turn to attack now; it spun around and slashed at Sora who leapt back. It made a few more powerful slashes with one arm. Sora blocked each strike but the force made his skinny arms tremble. The knight continued to hammer away at Sora's guard until Sora's Keyblade was knocked from his hand. Sora could see nothing but blackness as he gazed through the visor of the knight's helmet. He stood unflinching, waiting for the knight to deal the finishing blow but it did not. It knelt back down and plunged its Keyblade into the ground. The entire mesa began to quake and crumble but before it could collapse Sora was drawn to a brilliant gold light above him. Instead of falling, he was ascending, now free of fear and doubt._


	22. Prison World

Sora awoke and sprang to his feet. A door had appeared at the end of the chamber. That was where the light was coming from! He woke Krillin and Gohan and the three of them examined the door.

"Ansem has got to be setting a trap for us." Krillin concluded.

"But it looks like we don't have any place left to go." Gohan reasoned.

Sora pulled the doors open and the chamber was flooded with golden light. When it cleared, they found themselves standing on a lush island under a rich blue sky. Sora recognized this island instantly, he had lived here for fourteen years.

"This is my island!" he exclaimed.

He looked toward the beach and saw Riku standing there, still wearing his dark bodysuit, staring out into the blue-green sea. Not knowing what to expect, he approached Riku with the Oathkeeper ready and Krillin and gohan at his side.

"**Look at this tiny place."** A familiar voice rumbled softly. It was not Riku.

"**To a heart seeking freedom…this island is a prison surrounded by water…until a boy sought to escape from his prison. He sought a way to cross over to other worlds. And he opened his heart to darkness."**

Riku began turning around to face Sora but there was a flash of blackness and when it cleared, a man stood before him. He was tall and muscular with very tan skin, a mane of white hair and yellow-orange eyes. He wore a black and grey coat with red lining over a white tabard, black pants and black boots.

"Riku!" Sora gasped."

"**Your voice can no longer reach him where he is." **Ansem declared, **"His heart belongs again to darkness! All worlds begin in darkness, and all so end. The heart is no different! Darkness sprouts within it! It grows, consumes it! Such is its nature. In the end every heart returns to the darkness whence it came! Darkness is the heart's true essence."**

"You're wrong!" Sora cried. "Hearts may be weak, they may even give in but deep down there's a light that never goes out!"

Ansem folded his arms and rose slowly into the air, his features cool and dispassionate.

"**So you have made it this far and still you understand nothing." **He judged. **"Every light shall fade. Every heart return to darkness!"**

He lifted his hand and a ball of blue flame came to life in his palm. The flame started out quite bright but quickly turned black. He cast it onto the ground and it spread quickly. The three friends jumped onto the roof of the shack and Sora hurled himself toward Ansem, who shifted to the side. Krillin shot a thick yellow lightning bolt at Ansem but he caught it in his hand. The bolt turned black and Ansem hurled it right back at Krillin, searing him and knocking him off the shack. Sora struck wildly at Ansem with the Oathkeeper but Ansem parried each strike with Riku's wing-sword. Gohan flung his shield at the back of Ansem's neck but it didn't even stun him. Krillin shot a salvo of fire balls but Ansem encased himself in a sphere of burning red energy and Krillin's fire balls only made it hotter. Ansem zoomed forward in an attempt to ram Gohan with his red-hot sphere but Krillin cast Aero which protected him. Krillin then sprayed a thick stream of water which doused Ansem's sphere, allowing Sora to score several hits in the back of his head. He attempted to strike Ansem in the chest but Ansem seized him tightly by the throat and hoisted him off the ground.

"**Submit!" **he thundered.

Krillin conjured a large sphere of water and soaked Ansem with it. Sora wriggled free of Ansem's grip just as Krillin stunned him with a cluster of lightning bolts. Gohan then threw himself on his back and put him in a choke hold but Ansem threw him off and soared toward the hillside, it began to crumble along with Sora's favorite tree. He cried loudly, outraged at seeing his home ruined and charged into the deep crack Ansem had made in the hillside. He was determined to punish Ansem severely for this, he could feel the darkness growing in his heart like a black flame but he tried not to feed it. As soon as he entered he heard Gohan and Krillin grunt loudly. He turned his head to see a lucid black force field keeping them out. At that moment a great shadow was cast upon him and he turned his head back to face a very familiar Heartless. Its incredible bulk, jet-black skin, and tentacled head were unmistakable; it was Darkside. Darkside conjured a large black ball of energy with a burning red core and lifted it high above its head.

"That much dark energy could corrode what was left of this island!" Krillin shouted.

Sora hurled the Oathkeeper into the lethal ball and it burst into a hundred tiny balls which began raining down on Sora. The ones he could not avoid, he hacked apart. Darkside reached down to snatch Sora but he jumped on its arm, ran up to its head and raised the Oathkeeper to strike. Darkside thrashed its tentacles, knocking Sora off its shoulder but he dug his blade into its chest and with a cry of "Thunder!" he discharged a bolt of lightning into its body. Darkside grabbed a hold of Sora and hurled him into a wall but Sora got right back up and summoned the Oathkeeper. Darkside slammed its hand into the ground, creating a swirling black pool which five Shadows scurried out of. Sora cast Thunder again and vaporized three, then the remaining two leapt toward his chest and he sliced them in half with one swing. He then shot three bolts of lightning into Darkside's head and followed through with a Thunder Raid. The Oathkeeper hit Darkside right between the eyes and electrocuted it. Darkside finally collapsed and dissolved into black mist, and then Sora summoned the Oathkeeper back into his hand as Ansem descended.

"**Come, guardian!" **

At his command, a Heartless more imposing than any other appeared in front of him. It was a bit bigger than Ansem, had bindings wrapped around its chest and ghoulish face, and a pair of long, thick tendrils on its head. Sora prepared himself to strike this Heartless as soon as it got close but it began flinging sharp spinning blades at him, which took him by surprise. He managed to knock two away but the rest sliced into his chest, arms, and legs. He collapsed to one knee and took out an elixir he had been saving.

"**What do you hope to accomplish?" **Ansem asked in mock curiosity.

When Sora gulped down half of the elixir, the blades in his chest, arms, and legs disappeared and the wounds healed. The Heartless Guardian flung two more blades but Sora cast Aero and his protective wind shroud stopped the blades. A black and blue aura surrounded Ansem and he began zooming every which way, ramming into Sora like he did in Hollow Bastion. But this time, Sora's Aero spell reduced the damage he took. Ansem finally came to a halt and his Guardian dove into the ground. A black portal opened under Sora's feet and he leapt to the side as the Guardian came rocketing upward and then vanished. Portals kept opening under Sora and each time he leapt or rolled away, he narrowly avoided being hit by the Guardian. Finally the Guardian appeared right behind him and wrapped its massive arms around him so tightly his ribs might have snapped.

"**You cannot escape your fate." **Ansem stated grimly as he floated toward Sora with Riku's sword.

Sora kicked and squirmed desperately to free himself from the Guardian's clutches. Suddenly the Oathkeeper felt very hot. Sora could feel energy inside waiting to be unleashed. He moved his arm just enough to point it at Ansem and three red-hot beams shot out of the blades tip, sending him tumbling back. The Guardian released Sora and he whirled around to strike it but it was not there. Ansem was gone too and the entire island was ripping itself apart. In a matter of seconds all the ground beneath Sora shattered and he plummeted through blackness.


	23. Door to Darkness

As Sora sank deeper and deeper into the darkness he could hear Ansem's voice echoing around him.

"**Behold the endless abyss! Within lies the heart of all worlds…Kingdom Hearts! Look as hard as you are able, you'll not find even the smallest glimmer of light!"**

He was right. Try as he might, Sora could not see even his own hands in front of his face.

"**From these dark depths are all hearts born!" **Ansem went on, **"Even yours…"**

Sora shut his eyes tight and tried desperately to see something with his mind's eye…anything. Finally they came into view; Ansem and his Guardian, they were giants!

"**Darkness conquers all worlds!"**

Sora choked back a scream as he took in the Guardian's much more horrifying appearance. Its vertebrae was exposed, it had two blade-like prongs extending from its skull, and a head resembling those of the dragon-like Heartless attached to each shoulder. The Guardian's lower body was attached to a colossal, organic-looking battleship. It was mostly red and magenta mixed with purple and cyan. Its core was a pulsating, pale fleshy sack surrounded by growths with demonic-looking faces and protected by a twisted, red, coral-like cage. At the front of the ship was a bulbous monstrous head with yellow eyes and pointy teeth. Its entire hull was lined with tube worm-like growths.

Sora flew toward the giant Ansem but Ansem knocked him back with a giant sized version of Riku's wing-sword and sent him tumbling downward.

"_I thought you were stronger than that."_

It was Riku's voice, there was no mistaking it. He still existed, somewhere. Knowing this gave Sora the drive he needed, he soared back toward the battleship.

"**Still confused? Then perhaps this will enlighten you!" **

The tubeworm-like growths on the battleship began spewing white hot crystals and balls of fire, which Sora shielded himself from with Aero. He soared up to Ansem and swerved to avoid Riku's wing-sword.

" **Turn to darkness!" **Ansem bellowed and the Guardian opened its mouth wide and expelled a black beam with a purple glow around it.

Sora held the Oathkeeper in front of him and blocked the beam, but the force was enough to push him back.

"**Come forth!"** Ansem ordered and from the darkness, Sora spotted six pairs of yellow eyes flying toward him.

He spun wildly and hacked each Heartless apart. The ship's artillery launched volley after volley of crystals at Sora but this time, he batted them all at the artillery, disabling it. He then reached into his jacket pocket and held out a summon gem. There was a flash of gold light and the _Pikachu _creature emerged.

"Get him!" Sora cried pointing to Ansem.

Pikachu sprang forward and discharged hundreds of volts of electricity into Ansem. He dropped Riku's sword and recoiled for a moment. Sora took advantage of this by hurling the Oathkeeper and it made contact right in Ansem's forehead. Ansem seemed to lose consciousness; he fell forward and hung motionless from a series of cords connecting him to the Guardian. Pikachu retreated back into the summon gem and Sora placed it back in his pocket. He then flew behind Ansem and tried to hack the cords connecting him to the Guardian but it clapped its mighty hands together, creating a gust of wind which blew Sora back.

Sora came to a stop in front of the monstrous head at the front of the ship. It shot burning red bolts from its eyes, which Sora blocked with the Oathkeeper. It looked like it was about to attack again when some internal force caused its bottom jaw to be blown apart. Sora was briefly overcome with joy to see Krillin and Gohan jump out of its smoking maw and eventually float up beside him. The three of them grinned and chuckled happily for a few moments before their faces turned serious, this fight was not over. They looked up to see Ansem still dangling like a marionette and his Guardian eyeing them almost hungrily. It opened its mouth and spewed another dark beam which they evaded. They hovered over the ship's hull and landed in the protective cage. Sora threw himself at the fleshy core and plunged the Oathkeeper into it. It let out a chorus of unearthly shrieks and wails and finally broke open, drenching Sora with purple goo. The three of them soared away from the ship just as it broke away from the Guardian and sunk into the endless blackness below. They flew up to the unconscious Ansem and in mere moments, he awoke.

"**Welcome…Darkness!" **he rumbled.

He put his hands together and conjured a dark purple orb. He released the orb; it flew past the three friends, and came to a stop behind them. A ring of bright red arcane glyphs surrounded the orb and it grew until it was big enough for three people to fit inside.

"**Now...you ****weak-hearted fools…witness real power!" **thundered Ansem.

Sora felt himself being pulled toward the orb. He resisted the pull and kept flying toward Ansem but he soon heard Krillin and Gohan screaming behind him, they had been sucked into the orb. This had to stop now, Sora realized. He had to destroy Ansem, even if it meant destroying Riku. He silently cursed himself for what he was about to do, and then hurled the Oathkeeper straight into Ansem's black heart. Ansem roared loudly and the orb behind them must have exploded. Sora's vision was engulfed in crimson flame and then all was black again.

Sora awoke to find himself lying face-first on a rocky island floating in the endless black void. The island was covered in a thick blanket of glistening frost and at the end was a pair of tall white doors. Sora looked down at his arms; his skin was horribly blackened and his back felt raw. He forced himself to stand and a tremor of pain ran through him. Ansem was lying in the frost as well, he was back to his normal size but he didn't have so much as a burn on him. Krillin and Gohan were nowhere in sight but before Sora had time to look for them, Ansem got to his feet. Sora summoned they Keyblade, which had returned to its original form.

"**It does not matter what you do." **Ansem said softly. **"The Keyblade alone cannot seal the Door to Darkness." **

He whirled around, reached out to the doors.

"**Kingdom Hearts!" **he cried,** "Fill me with the power of Darkness!"**

The doors slowly started to open and thick clouds of black fog poured out and began covering Ansem.

"**Supreme Darkness!" **he cried triumphantly.

Sora's heart pounded as he stared into the darkness beyond the doors. It seemed as though Ansem had won, but then Sora noticed a tiny white spark in the darkness. Only then did his doubts lift and he remembered the wise words of Kairi's grandmother.

"No matter how deep the darkness…" he whispered, "…a light shines within."

The doors swung open and the tiny spark burst into a blinding ray of white light. Sora had to cover his eyes but he could feel the light's warmth on his badly burned skin. When the light finally faded, he opened his eyes and saw that all his injuries were healed and Ansem was gone.

He heard a groan behind him and whirled around to see Krillin and Gohan struggling to climb onto the island. He rushed over and helped them up.

"I think we need to close those doors." He breathed.

"Yeah, I think your right." Krillin agreed.

They rushed over to the doors and Sora began pushing the right one with all his might while Krillin and Gohan pushed the left.

Sora could not make his door budge; he was ready to ease up when he heard Riku's voice.

"Don't give up!"

Riku stuck his head out from behind the door so Sora could look into his fierce blue-green eyes.

"Come on, together we can do it!"

Sora pushed again and with Riku's help, closed the right door while Krillin and Gohan got the left one closed.

"Now, Sora! Let's close this door for good!" called another voice.

This voice was warm and passionate like Gohan's but strong and righteous as well.

"It's Dad!" Gohan gasped.

"Gokuuu!" Krillin cried.

"What will happen to you?" Sora called back.

"Don't worry. There will always be a door to the light." Goku assured him.

"Sora, we can trust my dad." said Gohan.

Sora stepped back, pointed the Keyblade at the door and shined a thin white beam into it.

"Take care of her." He heard Riku say softly.

The door dissolved into particles of golden light, revealing a frosty path that seemed to go on forever.

"Guess that's our way out." Krillin sighed.

He and Gohan began trekking down, Sora was about to join them when he felt a presence behind him. He turned his head slowly and saw Kairi standing on a small patch of sand that was quickly growing.

* * *

One moment Kairi was in Hollow Bastion with Sora's friends, and the next thing she knew, she was on a small patch of sand surrounded by darkness. She heard her name being called and looked up to see Sora running for her on a frosty floating island.

"Sora!" she gasped.

She reached out to touch him but the patch of sand she stood on began moving away from him. Sora stared at her with panic in his eyes for a moment or two before calling out to her.

"Kairi! Remember what you told me! I'm always with you too!" I'll find my way back to you! I promise."

Light tears slid down her cheeks but she found the strength to call back, "I know you will!"

After that, Sora disappeared into the darkness and Kairi was surrounded by light of every color imaginable. The light began to clear away and her little sand patch had grown into a bare island surrounded by deep blue ocean with an orange sunrise in the distance. There were more bursts of colorful light and palm trees sprouted from the ground, followed by a tall hill, then a shack, and finally Sora's island was whole again. She looked into the morning sky and saw a tiny star appear followed by another and then many more. Every world that was lost in the darkness was returning, thanks to Sora.

Kairi made her way through the cave where she and Sora used to make carvings on the walls. One particular carving caught her eye. She and Sora had made it together years ago. It was a carving of her and Sora, she put the finishing touch on it by having her offering Sora a paopu fruit. But it looked like Sora made another addition to it; he was offering her a paopu as well. Sora didn't admit it before but now she knew he wanted to share his life, his destiny with her too. She would wait for him for as long as she had to, Riku too. Nothing could tear these three friends apart, not growing up, not even the darkness.


End file.
